Publication:

Sex and Seclusion, Class and Custody: Perspectives on Gender and Class in the History of British and Irish Psychiatry (2004)

Author(s): Andrews J; Digby A

  • : Sex and Seclusion

Notes: This monograph has been highlighted because it displays Andrews' skills as both an author and editor, and his command of the broad historiography of class and gender perespectives on the history of psychiatry. It includes his own historiograophical survey (jointly authored with Digby), whioch comprises the first introductory chapter and is entitled 'Introduction: Gender and Class in the Historiography of British and Irish Psychiatry', pp. 7-44. This innovative collection of essays employs historical and sociological approaches to provide important case studies of asylums, psychiatry and mental illness in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Leading scholars in the field working on a variety of geographical, temporal, socio-cultural, economic and political contexts, show how class and gender have historically affected and conditioned the thinking, language, and processes according to which society identified and responded to the mentally ill. Contributors to this volume focus on both class and gender and thus are able to explore their interaction, whereas previous publications addressed class or gender incidentally, partially, or in isolation. By adopting this dual focus as its unifying theme, the volume is able to supply new insights into such interesting topics as patient careers, the relationship between lay and professional knowledge of insanity, the boundaries of professional power, and the creation of psychiatric knowledge. While already very well received in leading journals, including Soc. His. Med. and Hist. Psychiatry, at time of writing, reviews are only beginning to come in to the press.

  • Short Title: Sex and Seclusion
  • Series Title: Wellcome Series in the History of Medicine
  • Volume: 77
  • Number of Pages: vi, 338
  • Publisher: Rodopi BV
  • Publication type: Authored book
  • Bibliographic status: Published
    Staff

    Dr Jonathan Andrews
    Reader in the History of Psychiatry