This Way Madness Lies: The Three Ages of the Asylum

Author(s): Mike Jay

Psychology | History | Sociology

Is mental illness - or madness - at root an illness of the body, a disease of the mind, or a sickness of the soul? Should those who suffer from it be secluded from society or integrated more fully into it? This Way Madness Lies explores the meaning of mental illness through the successive incarnations of the institution that defined it: the madhouse, designed to segregate its inmates from society; the lunatic asylum, which intended to restore the reason of sufferers by humane treatment; and the mental hospital, which reduced their conditions to diseases of the brain. Rarely seen photographs and illustrations drawn from the archives of mental institutions in Europe and the U.S. illuminate and reinforce the compelling narrative, while extensive 'gallery' sections present revealing and thought-provoking artworks by asylum patients and other artists from each era of the institution and beyond.

As the concept of reason coalesced and gained ascendency in society, so was the concept of unreason increasingly separated from it and those who were viewed as embodying unreason were increasingly separated from the rest of society, confined beyond the ringfence of the 'acceptable', their misfortunes - however kindly or unkindly they were treated – ultimately serving to serve the mechanisms of ascendancy by simultaneously providing reassurance and threat to the populace. Sufficiently separated, there is nothing to prevent the agents of reason acting upon those assigned to unreason, and attempting to modify them through 'treatment' and 'cure'. Throughout this excellently illustrated book, Jay traces the changing attitudes towards 'madness' particularly in relation to the evolution of the Bethlem Royal Hospital ('Bedlam') but also with reference to other European institutions, contrasting these with the parallel evolution of the 'mad colony' of Geel, a Belgian city which has served for many as a model of 'best practice' of noninstitutional care. Also included are a range of artworks by patients, which serve to make the workings of their minds both accessible and reassuringly 'other'.


{THOMAS}


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780500518977
  • : Thames Hudson Ltd
  • : Thames Hudson Ltd
  • : 2.68
  • : July 2016
  • : 280mm X 180mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : September 2016
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Mike Jay
  • : Hardback
  • : 1
  • : English
  • : 362.2109
  • : 256
  • : 350 illustrations, 250 in colour