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cseibs's review against another edition
2.0
Perhaps the fault is in my expectations. But this book turned out not to actually be a history of mental illness, but rather a very broad strokes accounting of the cultural history of institutional treatment of the mentally ill in select Western societies. It felt entirely incomplete and in a way dishonest. The author did not meaningfully address any non-Western "civilization", as though the West is the very definition of civilization. There also was no attempt to address community or familial attitudes and approaches toward mental illness; the entire book was oriented toward large-scale systematized approaches. And, very surprisingly given the social-economic status of many labeled mentally ill, the book is solely from the point of view of the wealthy, as though the poor have no cultural contribution on the topic. In general, the author never stopped to check his many, many privileges and, thus, the book lacked depth.
harridansstew's review against another edition
2.0
A decent overview of insanity in western civilization. I found it pretty dry, but was glad to see some from eastern civilization as well. Overall, the author concludes that madness is an intrinsic part of life and that we have never been able to understand it.
dayrepresent's review against another edition
4.0
Good overview of Madness in Civilizations. Chapter structure could be a bit better organized but overall good.
everything_was_beautiful's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
glossyjul's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
The desperation to “fix” those who are different or aren’t compliant has seen us become the greatest villains in our own story… in some ways we have progressed but the history of madness has certainly been a dark one and the story most definitely got even more gruesome post industrialisation.
slinkmalink's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Interesting, easy to follow and left me thinking a lot about how ~madness~ is understood and treated now in ways I hadn't really before