Mad, Bad And Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present

Mad, Bad And Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present

by Lisa Appignanesi (Author)

Synopsis

Mad, bad and sad. From the depression suffered by Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath to the mental anguish and addictions of iconic beauties Zelda Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. From Freud and Jung and the radical breakthroughs of psychoanalysis to Lacan's construction of a modern movement and the new women-centred therapies. This is the story of how we have understood mental disorders and extreme states of mind in women over the last two hundred years and how we conceive of them today, when more and more of our inner life and emotions have become a matter for medics and therapists.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 608
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Virago
Published: 15 Jan 2009

ISBN 10: 1844082342
ISBN 13: 9781844082346
Book Overview: * Author PR activity to include media interviews, events and appearances at literary festivals * Review and feature coverage * Reading copies available *Featured on the Virago website

Media Reviews
A tantalising mix of polemic and history, of ideology and fact . . . A gripping read . . . In a league far above any other book of its kind on this topic * SUNDAY BUSINESS POST *
Subtle, textured and enthralling . . . One of the great strengths of this book is the way in which it charts the uncanny relationship between fashions in psychiatric theory and sufferers' symptoms * SUNDAY TIMES *
Marvellous. At last! A serious, well-researched book on this important subject * Pamela Stephenson *
The triumph of MAD, BAD AND SAD is to mix evocative case studies with potted histories of the great and good of psychology and psychiatry . . . intelligent and academically rigorous * OBSERVER *
** 'Informative in startling ways, and never dull in the academic way, Appignanesi's genuinely new History of the Mind Doctors is a subtle and accessible account of that perhaps most daunting of modern relationships, the one between the Mind Doctor and his female patient. Because Appignanesi has a complex story to tell there is no blaming at work in this wonderful book, but a shrewd and sympathetic apprehension of what is at stake in the difficult histories of both the Mind Doctors and those they seek to help. It is a remarkable achievement * Adam Phillips *
** 'A tantalising mix of polemic and history, of ideology and fact . . . A gripping read . . . In a league far above any other book of its kind on this topic * SUNDAY BUSINESS POST *
** 'Endlessly fascinating * THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *
** 'Subtle, textured and enthralling . . . One of the great strengths of this book is the way in which it charts the uncanny relationship between fashions in psychiatric theory and sufferer s' symptoms * SUNDAY TIMES *
Author Bio
Lisa Appignanesi was born in Poland and grew up in France and Canada. A novelist and writer, she is visiting professor of Literature and the Medical Humanities at King's College London. She was chair of the Freud Museum from 2008-2014 and is a former president of English PEN. She was awarded an OBE for services to Literature in 2013. Her published work includes Mad, Bad and Sad, All About Love and Losing the Dead. @LisaAppignanesi