Madness in Civilization

This ambitious volume, worldwide in scope and ranging from antiquity to the present, examines the human encounter with Unreason in all its manifestations, the challenges it poses to society and our responses to it. In twelve chapters organized chronologically from the Bible to Freud, from exorcism to mesmerism, from Bedlam to Victorian asylums, from the theory of humours to modern pharmacology, Andrew Scull writes compellingly about madness, its meanings, its consequences and our attempts to understand and treat it.

'Perhaps the most comprehensive account of the history of psychiatry that has yet appeared in a single volume' - The Times Literary Supplement, 'A milestone text … No other monograph has accomplished such scope, perception and balance in covering madness’s haunting, shifting presence in civilization’s psyche ' - BBC History Magazine, 'Powerful and disturbing … a panoramic survey' - The Sunday Times, 'Learned, liberally humanitarian and wryly witty' - The Spectator

Andrew Scull is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Science Studies, University of California, San Diego. He is the author of many books, including Masters of Bedlam; Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine; and Madness: A Very Short Introduction.