Mad, Bad And Sad
A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Published:26th May '17
Should be back in stock very soon
* Author PR activity to include media interviews, events and appearances at literary festivals * Review and feature coverage * Reading copies available *Featured on the Virago website
* 'In every generation there are quite firm rules on how to behave when you are crazy' Ian HackingMad, 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 disorders and extreme states of mind in women over the last two hundred years and how we conceive of them today, when more and more of our inner life and emotions have become a matter for medics and therapists.
** 'Informative in startling ways, and never dull in the academic way, Appignanesi's genuinely new History of the Mind Doctors is a subtle and accessible account of that perhaps most daunting of modern relationships, the one between the Mind Doctor and his female patient. Because Appignanesi has a complex story to tell there is no blaming at work in this wonderful book, but a shrewd and sympathetic apprehension of what is at stake in the difficult histories of both the Mind Doctors and those they seek to help. It is a remarkable achievement Adam Phillips ** 'A tantalising mix of polemic and history, of ideology and fact ... A gripping read ... In a league far above any other book of its kind on this topic SUNDAY BUSINESS POST ** 'Endlessly fascinating THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ** 'Subtle, textured and enthralling ... One of the great strengths of this book is the way in which it charts the uncanny relationship between fashions in psychiatric theory and sufferer s' symptoms SUNDAY TIMES
- Winner of Medical Journalists' Association Open Book Award: General Readership 2009
- Commended for Warwick Prize for Writing 2009
- Commended for Mind Book of the Year Award 2009
- Commended for Duff Cooper Prize 2009
- Long-listed for Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008
ISBN: 9781844082346
Dimensions: 198mm x 128mm x 40mm
Weight: 440g
608 pages