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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Am I Mad?’
T2 - The Windham Case and Victorian Resistance to Psychiatry
AU - Degerman, Dan
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - This article revisits the notorious trial of William Windham, a wealthy young man accused of lunacy. The trial in 1861-2 saw the country's foremost experts on psychological medicine very publicly debate the concepts, symptoms and diagnosis of insanity. I begin by surveying the trial and the testimonies of medical experts. Their disparate assessments of Windham evoked heated reactions in the press and Parliament; these reactions are the focus of the second section. I then proceed to examine criticism of psychiatry in the newspapers more generally in the 1860s, outlining the political resistance to psychiatry and the responses of some leading psychiatrists. In conclusion, I consider what this says about the politics of medicalization at the time.
AB - This article revisits the notorious trial of William Windham, a wealthy young man accused of lunacy. The trial in 1861-2 saw the country's foremost experts on psychological medicine very publicly debate the concepts, symptoms and diagnosis of insanity. I begin by surveying the trial and the testimonies of medical experts. Their disparate assessments of Windham evoked heated reactions in the press and Parliament; these reactions are the focus of the second section. I then proceed to examine criticism of psychiatry in the newspapers more generally in the 1860s, outlining the political resistance to psychiatry and the responses of some leading psychiatrists. In conclusion, I consider what this says about the politics of medicalization at the time.
KW - Anti-psychiatry
KW - expert testimony
KW - insanity
KW - law
KW - medicalization
KW - newspapers
KW - 19th century
U2 - 10.1177/0957154X19867059
DO - 10.1177/0957154X19867059
M3 - Journal article
VL - 30
SP - 457
EP - 468
JO - History of Psychiatry
JF - History of Psychiatry
SN - 0957-154X
IS - 4
ER -