Madness and Society in the Modern Age

Madness and Society in the Modern Age

UCIL30832 (10 Credits)

UCIL30332 (20 Credits)

Course Unit Details

• Level 3
• Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

This unit aims to introduce students to the history of mental illness and psychiatry from the late eighteenth century to the present. It examines how insanity has been understood, treated and represented within larger social, cultural, and intellectual frameworks. It also relates changing ideas of and approaches to mental illness, health and functioning to larger questions in the history of the medical and biological sciences and discusses the impact of this history on the modern world.

On successful completion of the unit, you will be able to:

• Identify historical approaches to medical thinking and practice
• Describe how approaches to madness changed from 1780 onwards, including changing definitions of both mental health and insanity
• Understand how the history of mental illness has shaped today's approaches to mental health
• Analyse historians' arguments, through discussion of secondary literature and exploration of primary sources and historical data
• Recognise and understand key historiographical approaches in the history of madness and mental health
• Contribute to informed group discussions and debate, including presenting your own arguments effectively
• Write a short, structured text combining a range of viewpoints
• Produce a blog post or podcast discussing the impact of a topic in the history of madness on the modern world

In addition, for 20 credits:

• Research and write a review essay incorporating both primary sources and secondary literature, and integrating historical medical and social contexts

Content may vary from year to year in response to contemporary events and student interest, but will typically address the following broad topics:

• The Birth of the Asylum
• The Expansion of the Asylum
• Theorising Insanity: Minds and Bodies
• Gender, Madness and Society
• Race, Madness and Colonial Psychiatry
• Freud, Psychoanalysis and Culture
• Shell Shock, Psychiatry and War
• The Brain, the Body and the Mind
• Therapy and the Post-war Institution
• The Psychiatrisation of Everyday Life

All required readings are available electronically. In addition to required readings, you will be provided with lists of suggested further readings, designed to help you with your essay research, as well as links to audio and video documentaries.

• 12 x 1 hour online lectures
• 12 x 1 hour face-to-face seminars

10 Credits

1. 1000-word coursework essay (50%)

2. Blog post (1000 words) or 10-minute podcast (50%)

20 Credits

1. 1000-word coursework essay (25%)

2. Blog post (1000 words) or 10-minute podcast (25%)

3. 3000-word project report (50%)

Dr Carsten Timmermann

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