A History of Delusions

The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse

Victoria Shepherd

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9780861540921
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Histoire sociale

A curious history of the strange, wonderful and sometimes terrifying worlds created by our minds.

‘An utterly engrossing book.' ZOE WILLIAMS

For centuries we’ve dismissed delusions as something for doctors to sort out behind locked doors. But delusions are more than just bizarre quirks – they hold the key to collective anxieties and traumas.

In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd uncovers stories of delusions from medieval times to the present day and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness.

• Discover how the King of France – thinking he was made of glass – was terrified he might shatter... and he wasn’t alone...
• Uncover the peculiar case of the dozens of Victorian women who tried to convince their physicians that they were, in fact, dead.
• And learn how after the Emperor met his end at the Battle of Waterloo, an epidemic of 'Napoleons' piled into France’s asylums.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter I • ‘Madame M’ and ‘The Illusion of Doubles’
• Chapter II • A Paranoid Conspiracy: James Tilly Matthews and the ‘Air Loom Gang’
• Chapter III • The Melancholic Delusions of Robert Burton
• Chapter IV • Francis Spira and the ‘Delusion of Despair’
• Chapter V • The Glass Delusion of King Charles VI of France
• Chapter VI • Margaret Nicholson, Descended from Boudicca and Rightful Queen of England
• Chapter VII • The Clockmaker Who Lost His Head
• Chapter VIII • Napoleon and ‘Delusions of Grandeur’
• Chapter IX • ‘Madame X’, Professor Cotard and ‘Walking Corpse Syndrome’
• Chapter X • ‘Léa-Anna B’ and the King: Grand Passions and ‘Erotomania’
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• Select Bibliography
• Notes
• Copyright Page