Madmen And The Bourgeoisie: A Social History Of Insanity And Psychiatry
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
A landmark work in the history of psychiatry and social thought, Madmen and the Bourgeoisie presents a sweeping critical analysis of how Western society came to define, confine, and treat mental illness from the early modern period through the nineteenth century. Klaus Doerner argues that the rise of psychiatry was not a straightforward triumph of medical progress, but rather a deeply political and class-driven process in which bourgeois society systematically excluded those it deemed unproductive or irrational. Drawing on a rich comparative framework that spans England, France, and Germany, the work illustrates how institutions of confinement — from workhouses to asylums — served as instruments of social control as much as sites of care. Written with rigorous scholarly authority yet animated by a critical, almost polemical energy, it challenges readers to reconsider the relationship between reason, power, and the medicalization of deviance. This foundational text remains essential reading for anyone interested in the intersections of psychiatry, sociology, and the history of modern capitalism.
Author: Klaus Doerner
Format: Paperback
Genre: Psychology
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
A landmark work in the history of psychiatry and social thought, Madmen and the Bourgeoisie presents a sweeping critical analysis of how Western society came to define, confine, and treat mental illness from the early modern period through the nineteenth century. Klaus Doerner argues that the rise of psychiatry was not a straightforward triumph of medical progress, but rather a deeply political and class-driven process in which bourgeois society systematically excluded those it deemed unproductive or irrational. Drawing on a rich comparative framework that spans England, France, and Germany, the work illustrates how institutions of confinement — from workhouses to asylums — served as instruments of social control as much as sites of care. Written with rigorous scholarly authority yet animated by a critical, almost polemical energy, it challenges readers to reconsider the relationship between reason, power, and the medicalization of deviance. This foundational text remains essential reading for anyone interested in the intersections of psychiatry, sociology, and the history of modern capitalism.