Description: "This volume examines modern questions around psychiatry through a historical lens, teasing apart associations with ancient medicine, philosophy and myth to demonstrate how these reflect internal contradictions and ambiguities within modern conceptions of mental illness and its treatment. By exploring a series of explanatory models and diagnoses, and mapping key connections between ancient and modern frameworks, it demonstrates how the process of exploring the connections between modern and ancient psychiatry can illuminate modern understandings of mental illness, its therapies, and its place in contemporary society and culture"-- Provided by publisher.
Brief description: Phiroze Vasunia is Professor of Greek at University College London, UK.
Review Quotes: "This is a beautifully written account of the connections between ancient medicine and modern psychiatry. Jessica Wright has set out some fascinating details. But the most impressive aspect of the book is the breadth of understanding that she brings to bear on a range of complex concepts and phenomena." --Julian C Hughes, Honorary Professor, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, UK.