Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
OverviewBased on three hundred civil and criminal cases over four centuries, Elizabeth W. Mellyn reconstructs the myriad ways families, communities, and civic and medical authorities met in the dynamic arena of Tuscan law courts to forge pragmatic solutions to the problems that madness brought to their households and streets. In some of these cases, solutions were protective and palliative; in others, they were predatory or abusive. The goals of families were sometimes at odds with those of the courts, but for the most part families and judges worked together to order households and communities in ways that served public and private interests. For most of the period Mellyn examines, Tuscan communities had no institutions devoted solely to the treatment and protection of the mentally disturbed; responsibility for their long-term care fell to the family. By the end of the seventeenth century, Tuscans, like other Europeans, had come to explain madness in medical terms and the mentally disordered were beginning to move from households to hospitals. In Mad Tuscans and Their Families, Mellyn argues against the commonly held belief that these changes chart the rise of mechanisms of social control by emerging absolutist states. Rather, the story of mental illness is one of false starts, expedients, compromise, and consensus created by a wide range of historical actors. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Elizabeth W. MellynPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.612kg ISBN: 9780812246124ISBN 10: 0812246128 Pages: 304 Publication Date: 23 April 2014 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Tertiary & Higher Education , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of Contents"Note on Dates and Money Introduction: The Tales Madness Tell Chapter 1. Incapacity, Guardianship, and the Tuscan Family Chapter 2. ""Madness Is Punishment Enough"": The Insanity Defense Chapter 3. Spending Without Measure: Madness, Money, and the Marketplace Chapter 4. From Madness to Sickness Chapter 5. The Curious Case of Forensic Medicine: The Dog That Didn't Bark in the Night Conclusion List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments"ReviewsAt last, a study that goes beyond literary representations of madness to explore how actual people and communities understood and dealt with conditions judged to be insane. Mad Tuscans and Their Families carefully charts the legal and political contexts behind a wide range of behaviors and never loses sight of those who cared for sufferers when there was no agreed-upon public response or means of care. -David Gentilcore, University of Leicester Author InformationElizabeth W. Mellyn teaches history at the University of New Hampshire. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
