Mental Health in Historical Perspective

Coleborne, C. (Ed), Smith, M. (Ed)

Covering all historical periods and geographical contexts, the series explores how mental illness has been understood, experienced, diagnosed, treated and contested. It will publish works that engage actively with contemporary debates related to mental health and, as such, will be of interest not only to historians, but also mental health professionals, patients and policy makers. With its focus on mental health, rather than just psychiatry, the series will endeavour to provide more patient-centred histories. Although this has long been an aim of health historians, it has not been realised, and this series aims to change that. The scope of the series is kept as broad as possible to attract good quality proposals about all aspects of the history of mental health from all periods. The series emphasises interdisciplinary approaches to the field of study, and encourages short titles, longer works, collections, and titles which stretch the boundaries of academic publishing in new ways.

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Titles in this series

Showing 22 results.

Civilian Lunatic Asylums During the First World War Book

Civilian Lunatic Asylums During the First World War

Hilton, C. (2021)

This open access book explores the history of asylums and their civilian patients during the First World War, focusing on the effects of wartime austerity and deprivation on the …

Available Formats: Softcover Hardcover eBook

From Melancholia to Depression Book

From Melancholia to Depression

Jansson, Å. (2021)

This open access book maps a crucial but neglected chapter in the history of psychiatry: how was melancholia transformed in the nineteenth century from traditional melancholy …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

Healthy Minds in the Twentieth Century Book

Healthy Minds in the Twentieth Century

Taylor, S. J. (Ed), Brumby, A. (Ed) (2020)

This open access edited collection contributes a new dimension to the study of mental health and psychiatry in the twentieth century. It takes the present literature beyond the …

Available Formats: Softcover Hardcover eBook

Private Madhouses in England, 1640–1815 Book

Private Madhouses in England, 1640–1815

Smith, L. (2020)

This book examines the origins and early development of private mental health-care in England, showing that the current spectacle of commercially-based participation in key …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

London and its Asylums, 1888-1914 Book

London and its Asylums, 1888-1914

Ellis, R. (2020)

This book explores the impact that politics had on the management of mental health care at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 1888 and the introduction of the …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

Idiocy, Imbecility and Insanity in Victorian Society Book

Idiocy, Imbecility and Insanity in Victorian Society

Eastoe, S. (2020)

This book explores the understudied history of the so-called ‘incurables’ in the Victorian period, the people identified as idiots, imbeciles and the weak-minded, as opposed to …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

Psychologies in Revolution Book

Psychologies in Revolution

Proctor, H. (2020)

This book situates the work of the Soviet psychologist and neurologist Alexander Luria (1902-1977) in its historical context and explores the 'romantic' approach to scientific …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

Why Talk About Madness? Book

Why Talk About Madness?

Coleborne, C. (2020)

This short book argues for the relevance of historical perspectives on mental health, exploring how these histories can and should inform debates about mental healthcare today. …

Available Formats: Softcover eBook

Psycho-Politics between the World Wars Book

Psycho-Politics between the World Wars

Freis, D. (2019)

This book is about the psycho-political visions and programmes in early-twentieth century Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Amidst the political and social unrest that followed …

Available Formats: Softcover Hardcover eBook

Insanity and Immigration Control in New Zealand and Australia, 1860–1930 Book

Insanity and Immigration Control in New Zealand and Australia, 1860–1930

Kain, J. S. (2019)

This book examines the policy and practice of the insanity clauses within the immigration controls of New Zealand and the Commonwealth of Australia. It reveals those charged with …

Available Formats: Softcover Hardcover eBook

Preventing Mental Illness Book

Preventing Mental Illness

Kritsotaki, D. (Ed), Long, V. (Ed), Smith, M. (Ed) (2019)

This book provides an overview of a diverse array of preventive strategies relating to mental illness, and identifies their achievements and shortcomings. The chapters in this …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook Softcover

Psychiatry and Decolonisation in Uganda Book

Psychiatry and Decolonisation in Uganda

Pringle, Y. (2019)

This open access book investigates psychiatry in Uganda during the years of decolonisation. It examines the challenges facing a new generation of psychiatrists as they took over …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

The Cost of Insanity in Nineteenth-Century Ireland Book

The Cost of Insanity in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Mauger, A. (2018)

This open access book is the first comparative study of public, voluntary and private asylums in nineteenth-century Ireland. Examining nine institutions, it explores whether …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook Softcover

Lunatic Asylums in Colonial Bombay Book

Lunatic Asylums in Colonial Bombay

Pinto, S. A. (2018)

This book traces the historical roots of the problems in India’s mental health care system. It accounts for indigenous experiences of the lunatic asylum in the Bombay Presidency …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook Softcover

Investigating the Body in the Victorian Asylum Book

Investigating the Body in the Victorian Asylum

Wallis, J. (2017)

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book explores how the body was investigated in the late nineteenth-century asylum in Britain. As more and more Victorian …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook Softcover

Improving Psychiatric Care for Older People Book

Improving Psychiatric Care for Older People

Hilton, C. (2017)

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book tells the story of Barbara Robb and her pressure group, Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions (AEGIS). In …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook Softcover

Migration and Mental Health Book

Migration and Mental Health

Harper, M. (Ed) (2016)

The relationship between migration and mental health is controversial, contested, and pertinent. In a highly mobile world, where voluntary and enforced movements of population are …

Available Formats: Hardcover Softcover eBook

Deinstitutionalisation and After Book

Deinstitutionalisation and After

Kritsotaki, D. (Ed), Long, V. (Ed), Smith, M. (Ed) (2016)

The book relates the history of post-war psychiatry, focusing on deinstitutionalisation, namely the shift from asylum to community in the second part of the twentieth century. …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook Softcover

Psychiatry in Communist Europe Book

Psychiatry in Communist Europe

Marks, S. (Ed), Savelli, M. (Ed) (2015)

This is the first book to address the history of psychiatry under Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, from the Soviet Union to East Germany. It brings together new research …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

A History of Male Psychological Disorders in Britain, 1945-1980 Book

A History of Male Psychological Disorders in Britain, 1945-1980

Haggett, A. (2015)

This book is open access under a CC BY license and explores the under-researched history of male mental illness from the mid-twentieth century. It argues that statistics …

Available Formats: Hardcover Softcover eBook