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Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present
Mad, bad and sad. From the depression suffered by Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath to the mental anguish and addictions of iconic beauties Zelda Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. From Freud and Jung and the radical breakthroughs of psychoanalysis to Lacan's construction of a modern movement and the new women-centred therapies. This is the story of how we have understood mental...more
Paperback, 592 pages
Published
January 15th 2009
by Virago Press
(first published 2007)
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Possession, love, sex (too much or too little), religion, abuse, grief, and heredity, to name a few – the causes of women’s madness are myriad. Taking the most consistent bashing as cause by the “psy” professions is mothers. No surprise there: when she hasn’t been accused of rendering sons unfit for military service by over-nurturing them, she’s been driving daughters to anorexia with inattention.
Appignanesi’s account takes in obscure and well-known patients and their doctors. It both affirms c...more
Appignanesi’s account takes in obscure and well-known patients and their doctors. It both affirms c...more
Longlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize, which is about right. It's clearly a Serious Work intended for that sort of prize, but it's so oddly bloodless and unengaging that it doesn't deserve to go further. Appignanesi seems more interested in the therapists, male and female, than the patients, none of whom get much of a look-in, despite being the ostensible subject of the book. There is no attempt to look at the experience of madness even when she is discussing women who wrote extensively about...more
Appignanesi chronicles the history of mental illness and women from the time when mental illness first became thought of as something that actually could be treated. At first, hospitals for the mentally ill were nothing more than storage facilities to keep the patient out of the families hair. Gradually, however, doctors came to feel that treatments, from isolation rooms to Freud’s ‘talking cure’ to ECT to all the assorted drugs, old and new. There have always been more female mental patients th...more
I gave this book a generous three stars and I am very conflicted about how to review it. Lisa Appignanesi tells the story of women's madness, badness and sadness and how mind doctors have understood these states of mind over the past two hundred years. Appignanesi was compelled to delve into the history of mental disorders in women by the startling recent statistics of the prevalence of mental illness in women and also the surge in treatments that are said to cure madness, such as antidepressant...more
This is a big book about a huge subject. It intrigued me in the book shop and has largely kept my interest throughout. It could perhaps have been reduced by about 25% in length without any loss of interest - indeed it would have benefited from a litlle pruning. The case histories that she used were particularly interesting. I found the sections about the various amendments to the diagnostic manuals for mental health rather heavy going and could quite happily have skipped those bits had I not tho...more
In all honesty, this was a weird book. Well, it is about the woman mind. Mad, Bad and Sad by Lisa Appignanesi is full of facts and contradicitons of the woman mind. It explains discrepensies back to the date of the 1800's to today. The book covers past asylums in history and also the schizophrenia that goes along with women. All in all, this was a decent book, at times the book seemed really long (560 pages) and dry and before i knew it, i read about 10 pages and was thinking about something tot...more
Read this book twice now, with a year's gap. Brilliant case studies and well put together. Fascinating stuff and a really good one to read alongside Roy Porter and his various books on madness. Despite its girth, I read it incredibly quickly. The stuff at the end on anorexia and eating disorders, was very interesting as I came at this book with my Victoriana hat on. It seems women have forever been driven mad by the world's merciless expectations and Appignanesi is nothing if not passionately em...more
Jun 30, 2008
Caitlin
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
The psy-curious
Appignanesi offers a detailed and critical review of the last two centuries of "mind-doctoring", from alienism to physiognomy to psychoanalysis to psychiatry. However, one gets the sense that the loose focus on women came only after the book was written, more as a suggestion from her editor to pare the tome down, rather than being the author's incipient specialization. Throughout the entirety of the book, Appignanesi re-addresses the topic of womanhood just at the point when the reader double-ch...more
Nov 26, 2008
Sam
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Sam by:
women's bookgroup
A fascinating history of both womens'role and how women have been treated by the psychiatric and psychoanalytical professions as they have evolved. While the author claims not to disparage modern medicine its a bit disingenuous. My only disappointment is that while her criticisms are thought provoking and valid she doesn't have any real conclusion to the work. In some ways she very nearly suggests that its the existence of the psychoanalytical professions that cause the problem in the first plac...more
I thought this book very apt, thorough and enlightening. Many of the threads and strands it explores are done clearly and brilliantly. The latter chapters on personality disorders, medication and the medicalisation of mental illness were thought provoking and inspiring: to do something against the over medicalised field of what is perhaps a more social and cultural diagnosis.
Oct 07, 2008
Lindsay
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in the history of the mental health profession or women's history
Recommended to Lindsay by:
the New York Times Book Review
A lively, well-researched look at women's experiences of mental illness and its treatment from the late 18th century to the present day. Chapters are arranged in roughly chronological order, with each chapter highlighting a particular theme that predominated each era's understanding of mental illness and its expression. (Appignanesi is a big believer in cultural influences dictating the form a mental illness takes). Each chapter also features one or two famous case histories that illustrate thes...more
A fascinating account of the history of the treatment of mental illness, particularly pertaining to women. Worthwhile reading.
I didn't finish this one. It was too much textbook and long case study for me to get excited about.
I read Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation about a year ago and was hoping this would be the same type of book. I was looking for information on how the mental health profession has developed and the role women patients played in it.
This book might have gotten there, but I couldn't get my brain where it needed to be to really sit down with the material and read.
I read Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation about a year ago and was hoping this would be the same type of book. I was looking for information on how the mental health profession has developed and the role women patients played in it.
This book might have gotten there, but I couldn't get my brain where it needed to be to really sit down with the material and read.
This is a really fascinating and erudite account of the history of women and the treatment of mental illness. Highly recommended.
One of the many books I had to read for school, this book was good. Informative to a fault, insightful and enlightening. Written well and in a slow build up so everything makes sense.
But it is dense; a very heavy read that would have been more enjoyable had I not had four other things to read on top of it.
But it is dense; a very heavy read that would have been more enjoyable had I not had four other things to read on top of it.
Very interesting but i didnt manage to finish it. However it's the kind of book you can dip in and out of.
Reviewed here.
A very engaging study into the treatment of psychiatric disorders, in women, throughout history.
This is a wonderful book and helped me understand the history of women and psychology.
Really interesting! For 400 pages of nonfiction, it was a quick read!
Fascinating study of the historical treatment of mental illness in women.
The history of psychology told from a feminist perspective? Sign me up.
I tried to get through this book. I really, really did, as there's a wonderful amount of information in hear about the history of the psychiatric profession in general, along with numerous case studies of how the mental health field has been applied to women though the past several centuries.
Sadly, there was just too much of a Textbook Effect at work for me to make through the final third. The sheer density of the material ultimately defeated me, and when I found myself skimming entire chapters...more
Sadly, there was just too much of a Textbook Effect at work for me to make through the final third. The sheer density of the material ultimately defeated me, and when I found myself skimming entire chapters...more
Covers the area well; good research involved
Now I just have to review it for academic journal!
I'm in two minds about this book. The subject is interesting, and the post-Freud chapters were especially fascinating, but the book was poorly executed. The writing got quite dense and there were some egregious editing errors. I kept thinking how much better it could/should have been. On the whole I'm glad I read it, but would only recommend it if you have a strong interest in the subject matter.
Although this took me a while to read (almost a week) I did find it interesting and was intrigued by the ever changing views and attitudes towards mental illness and it's treatment.
Grabbed this for Joshua and got sucked in.
Nov 24, 2009
Kathrina
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
deep thinkers.
Recommended to Kathrina by:
self discovered
Shelves:
favorites
I've become a little facinated with flawed women. I was in St Kilda Readings when I spied this book. Wow did i learn something! It's a great way to discover the history of mental institutions and psychiatry. Very interesting. Although i have found that the author over complicates the writing. I find it unnecessary and ruined some of the book for me. Fabulous book.
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كيف بدأت الأمراض النفسيّة بالظهور ، كيف تم التعامل معها منذ ٢٠٠ عام .
كتاب مثير للإهتمام جداََ . ويحتاج لصبر طويل ، لكن الجميل بأنك تذهب وتعود إليه دون خوف أو قلق .
مثير للدهشة لمن يهتم بالأمراض العقلية والنفسية .
كتاب مثير للإهتمام جداََ . ويحتاج لصبر طويل ، لكن الجميل بأنك تذهب وتعود إليه دون خوف أو قلق .
مثير للدهشة لمن يهتم بالأمراض العقلية والنفسية .
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Different from Mad, Bad and Sad? | 1 | 18 | Apr 25, 2008 03:54pm |
Lisa Appignanesi (born Elsbieta Borenztejn) is a writer and novelist of Polish-Jewish origin.
She was raised in Paris, France and in Montreal, Canada. She graduated from McGill University with a B.A. degree in 1966 and her M.A. the following year. During 1970-71 she was a staff writer for the Centre for Community Research in New York City and is a former University of Essex lecturer in European Stu...more
More about Lisa Appignanesi...
She was raised in Paris, France and in Montreal, Canada. She graduated from McGill University with a B.A. degree in 1966 and her M.A. the following year. During 1970-71 she was a staff writer for the Centre for Community Research in New York City and is a former University of Essex lecturer in European Stu...more
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