Discovering the History of Psychiatry

Psychiatry and psychology including psychoanalysis haveexercised enormous cultural and scientific influence in ourcentury and an important part of the growth of these fieldshas been their attempt to construct accounts of their owndisciplinary pasts. Yet these accounts which form thecollective memory of the psychiatric profession have variedgreatly. In fact the history of psychiatry has emerged asone of the most rapidly-growing and controversy-ridden areasof commentary in recent years. This book brings togethertwenty studies by a cast of eminent authors--physicianssocial scientists and humanists from Europe and NorthAmerica--who explore the many complex interpretive andideological dimensions of history writing about thepsychological sciences. It includes chapters on the historyof the asylum Freud biography anti-psychiatry in the United States and abroad feminist interpretations ofpsychiatry's past and historical accounts of Nazism andpsychotherapy as well as discussions of many individualhistorical figures and movements. This book represents thefirst attempt to study comprehensively the multiplemythologies that have grown up around the history of madnessand the origin functions and validity of these myths inour psychological century.