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OverviewA sleepwalking, homicidal nursemaid; a ""morally vacant"" juvenile poisoner; a man driven to arson by a ""lesion of the will""; an articulate and poised man on trial for assault who, while conducting his own defence, undergoes a profound personality change and becomes a wild and delusional ""alter"". These people are not characters from a mystery novelist's vivid imagination, but rather defendants who were tried at the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court, in the mid-19th century. In ""Unconscious Crime"", Joel Peter Eigen explores these and other cases in which defendants did not conform to any of the Victorian legal system's existing definitions of insanity, yet displayed convincing evidence of mental aberration. Instead, they were - or claimed to be - ""missing"", ""absent"" or ""unconscious"": lucid, though unaware of their actions. Based on extensive research in the Old Bailey Sessions Papers (verbatim courtroom narratives taken down in shorthand during the trial and sold on the street the following day), Eigen's book reveals a growing estrangement between law and medicine over the legal concept of the person as a rational and purposeful actor with a clear understanding of consequences. The McNaughtan Rules of l843 had formalized the Victorian insanity plea, guiding the courts in cases of alleged delusion and derangement. But as Eigen makes clear in the cases he discovered, even though defence attorneys attempted to broaden the definition of insanity to include mental absence, the courts and physicians who testified as experts were wary of these novel challenges to the idea of human agency and responsibility. Combining the colourful intrigue of courtroom drama and the keen insights of social history, ""Unconscious Crime"" depicts Victorian England's legal and medical cultures confronting a new understanding of human behaviour, and provocatively suggests these trials represent the earliest incarnation of double consciousness and multiple personality disorder. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Joel Peter Eigen (Professor, Franklin & Marshall College)Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press Edition: abridged edition Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.476kg ISBN: 9780801874284ISBN 10: 0801874289 Pages: 248 Publication Date: 13 January 2004 Recommended Age: From 17 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Professional & Vocational , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of Contents"Contents:Introduction ONE: Double Consciousness in the Nineteenth Century TWO: ""Do You Remember Cardiff?"" THREE: ""I Mean She Was Quite Absent"" FOUR: The Princess and the Cherry Juice FIVE: An Unconscious Poisoning SIX: Crimes of Automaton Conclusion"Reviews<p> This book shows how underneath the supposed hegemony of the restrictive M'Naghten Rules a long-term expansion of the universe of mental derangement was slowly taking place in the courts of Victorian England. It also carries forward the work Eigen did in his previous book, Witnessing Insanity: Madness and Mad Doctors in the English Court (1995), to debunk the fashionable notion of 'medical imperialism' and to show how the increasing use of medicine and psychiatry in criminal justice was being produced less by the ambitions of doctors and more by the actions of other 'players' in the legal process... It also reminds us of the relevance of criminal trials for understanding nineteenth century mentalities. -- Martin J. Wiener, American Historical Review Author InformationJoel Peter Eigen is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology at Franklin and Marshall College and visiting scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge. His previous book, Witnessing Insanity: Madness and Mad-Doctors in the English Court, won the 1997 Mannfred S. Guttmacher Award, cosponsored by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Law and Psychiatry. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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