by Amy Milne-Smith (Author)In a society that defined manhood as a mastery of self-control, the madman stood as a horrifying... Read more
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by Amy Milne-Smith (Author)
In a society that defined manhood as a mastery of self-control, the madman stood as a horrifying example of what could go wrong. Out of His Mind is a socio-cultural study of the madman in Victorian society; through in-depth case studies and broad surveys of emergent trends it explores popular anxieties about health, gender, and modern life.
Out of his mind is a study of the consequences of a diagnosis of insanity for men, their families, their friends, and the culture at large.
Studying the madman allows for an exploration of the cultural expectations of male behaviour, how men responded to those norms in their lived experiences, and what defined the bare minimums of acceptable male behaviour. Men's authority in society was rooted in control over dependents within their household and beyond; without that power, the foundation of their manhood was in question. As such, madness touched on a key tenet of nineteenth century masculinity: control. Building on accounts by sufferers, doctors, government officials, journalists and novelists, Out of his mind offers insight in the shifting anxieties surrounding men in mental distress. Exploring everything from wrongful confinement panics to cultures of shame and stigma to fears of degeneration, this study makes an important contribution to histories of gender and medicine. This text puts the madman at the centre of the history of Victorian masculinity and helps to better understand the stigma of men's mental illness that continues to this day.Amy Milne-Smith is Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University