Article ID: CBB373188237

‘Am I mad?’: the Windham case and Victorian resistance to psychiatry (2019)

unapi

This article revisits the notorious trial of William Windham, a wealthy young man accused of lunacy. The trial in 1861–2 saw the country’s foremost experts on psychological medicine very publicly debate the concepts, symptoms and diagnosis of insanity. I begin by surveying the trial and the testimonies of medical experts. Their disparate assessments of Windham evoked heated reactions in the press and Parliament; these reactions are the focus of the second section. I then proceed to examine criticism of psychiatry in the newspapers more generally in the 1860s, outlining the political resistance to psychiatry and the responses of some leading psychiatrists. In conclusion, I consider what this says about the politics of medicalization at the time.

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Authors & Contributors
Jones, David W.
Bertomeu Sánchez, José Ramón
Magliocchetti, Natalia
Guba, David A., Jr.
Duvall, Nicholas
Torrey, Edwin Fuller
Concepts
Mental disorders and diseases
Psychiatry
Medicine and law
Trials (law)
Medical psychology
Expert testimony
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, early
20th century
21st century
Early modern
Places
France
England
San Francisco (California)
Boston (Massachusetts, U.S.)
Scotland
United States
Institutions
Toronto Hospital for the Insane
Harvard University
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