A Mad People’s History of Madness

Dale Peterson

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Year: 1982
• eBook ISBN: 9780822974253
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Medicine Biographies
• Index: Psychology

A man desperately tries to keep his pact with the Devil, a woman is imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband because of religious differences, and, on the testimony of a mere stranger, "a London citizen" is sentenced to a private madhouse. This anthology of writings by mad and allegedly mad people is a comprehensive overview of the history of mental illness for the past five hundred years-from the viewpoint of the patients themselves.Dale Peterson has compiled twenty-seven selections dating from 1436 through 1976. He prefaces each excerpt with biographical information about the writer. Peterson's running commentary explains the national differences in mental health care and the historical changes that have take place in symptoms and treatment. He traces the development of the private madhouse system in England and the state-run asylum system in the United States. Included is the first comprehensive bibliography of writings by the mentally ill.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1436 - The Book of Margery Kempe
• 1677, 1678 - The Diary of Christoph Haizmann
• 1714 - The Life of the Reverend Mr. George Trosse: Written by Himself, and Published Posthumously According to His Order in 1714
• 1739 - The London-Citizen Exceedingly Injured; Or, A British Inquisition Display'd, in an Account of the Unparallel'd Case of a Citizen of London, Bookseller to the Late Queen, Who Was in a Most Unjust and Arbitrary Manner Sent on the 23rd of March Last, 1738, by One Robert Wightman, a Mere Stranger, to a Private Madhouse, by Alexander Cruden
• 1774 - One More Proff of the Iniquitous Abuse of Private Madhouses, by Samuel Bruckshaw
• 1816 - Memoir of the Early Life of William Cowper, Esq.
• 1818 - The Interior of Bethlehem Hospital, by Urbane Metcalf
• 1838 and 1840 - A Narrative of the Treatment Experienced by a Gentleman, During a State of Mental Derangement; Designed to Explain the Causes and the Nature of Insanity, and to Expose the Injudicious Conduct Pursued Towards Many Unfortunate Sufferers Under That Calamity, by John Perceval
• 1849 - Five Months in the New-York State Lunatic Asylum, Anonymous
• 1868 - The Prisoner's Hidden Life, or Insane Asylums Unveiled: As Demonstrated by the Report of the Investigating Committee of the Legislature of Illinois. Together with Mrs. Packard's Coadjutors' Testimony, by Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard
• 1869 - The Trial of Ebenezer Haskell, in Lunacy, and His Acquittal Before Judge Brewster in November, 1868, together with a Brief Sketch of the Mode of Treatment of Lunatics in Different Asylums in this Country and in England, with Illustrations, Including a Copy of Hogarth's Celebrated Painting of a Scene in Old Bedlam, in London, 1635
• 1903 - Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, by Daniel Paul Schreber
• 1908 - A Mind That Found Itself, by Clifford Beers
• 1909 - The Maniac: A Realistic Study of Madness from the Maniac's Point of View, by E. Thelmar
• 1910 - Legally Dead, Experiences During Seventeen Weeks; Detention in a Private Asylum, by Marcia Hamilcar
• 1918, 1919 - The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky
• 1938 - The Witnesses, by Thomas Hennell
• 1944 - Brainstorm, by Carlton Brown
• 1945 - I Question, Anonymous
• 1946 - The Snake Pit, by Mary Jane Ward
• 1952 - Wisdom Madness and Folly, by John Custance
• 1955 - Voices Calling, by Lisa Wiley
• 1964 - I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, by Joanne Greenberg
• 1965 - Beyond All Reason, by Morag Coate
• 1975 - The Eden Express, by Mark Vonnegut
• 1976 - Insanity Inside Out, by Kenneth Donaldson
• Epilogue
• Appendix I: Ancient and Medieval Visions of Madness
• Appendix II: Contemporary Models of Madness
• Bibliography