Trials of passion : crimes committed in the name of love and madness

Using Sensational Crimes Committed In America, Britain, And France, This Dramatic Narrative Takes Madness And Passion Into The Courts And Puts These Provocative Themes On Trial-- A Journey Into The Heart Of Dark Passions And The Crimes They Impel, And Their Trial By Daylight And Doctors. When Passion Is In The Picture, What Is Criminal, What Is Sane, What Is Mad Or Simply Bad? Through Court And Asylum Records, Letters And Newspaper Accounts, This Book Brings To Life Some Sensational Trials Between 1870 And 1914, A Period When The Psychiatric Professions Were Consolidating Their Hold On Our Understanding Of What Is Human. Outside Fiction, Individual Emotions And The Inner Life Had Rarely Been Publicly Discussed: Now, In An Increasingly Popular Press And Its Courtroom Reports, People Avidly Consumed Accounts Of Transgressive Sexuality, Savage Jealousy And Forbidden Desires. These Stood Revealed As Aspects Not Only Of Those Labelled Mad, But Potentially, Of Everyone. With Great Storytelling Flair And A Wealth Of Historical Detail, Lisa Appignanesi Teases Out The Vagaries Of Passion And The Clashes Between The Law And The Clinic As They Stumble Towards A (sometimes Reviled) Collaboration. Sexual Etiquette And Class Roles, Attitudes To Love, Madness And Gender, Notions Of Respectability And Honor, Insanity And Lunacy, All Are At Play In That Vital Forum In Which Public Opinion Is Shaped--the Theater Of The Courtroom-- Passion Goes To Court -- Pt. 1: Britain: The Unspoken -- I. Christiana Edmunds And The Chocolate Cream Murders -- The Borgia Of Brighton -- The Hearing -- A Wilful Killing? -- The Rumbles Of History -- Sex And The Victorian Hysteric -- Fashions In Treatment -- Loving Doctors -- At The Old Bailey -- Insanity And The Law -- 'enceinte! She Says She Is, My Lord' -- Murder, Gender And Shifting Public Attitudes -- Saving (mad) Christiana -- Broadmoor -- Pt. 2: France: Virtue On Trial -- Ii. A Hysteria Of The Heart: The Case Of Marie Biére -- The Love Child -- 'going Mad' -- The Investigation -- Passion, Madness, And Medics -- The Trial Of Marie Biére -- 'a Hyper-excitation Of The Affective Faculties' -- The Verdict -- Afterlife -- Revolvers And Vitriol -- Iii. Hysteria, Hypnosis And Criminal Responsibility -- Hypnotic Murders 1: The Chambige Affair -- Hypnotic Murders 2: L'affaire Gouffé -- Iv. Naturalizing The Impulsive Feminine -- Henriette Caillaux Meets The Press -- A Woman's Honour -- Into The Sexual Century -- Pt. 3: The United States: The Paranoia Of A Millionaire -- V. Brain Storm Over Manhattan -- A Voluptuary's Retreat -- Murder In The Garden -- The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing -- The Pittsburgh Millionaire -- Pursuing Evelyn -- The Trial Of The Century -- Mad Harry: American Psychiatry Meets The Law -- Experts On The Stand -- Star Witness For The Defence -- The Prosecution Counter-attacks -- Climax: 'murder As A Cure For Insanity' -- Sexual Politics -- Expert Fall-out -- The Second Trial Of Harry K. Thaw -- Manic-depressive Insanity -- Fighting Lunacy -- The Great Escape -- Assessing The Experts -- Coda. Lisa Appignanesi. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 414-416) And Index. "This book journeys into the heart of dark passions and the crimes they impel. When passion is in the picture, what is criminal, what sane, what mad or simply bad? Brighton, 1870: A well-respected spinster infuses chocolate creams with strychnine in order to murder her lover's wife. Paris, 1880: A popular performer stalks her betraying lover through the streets of the city for weeks and finally takes aim. New York, 1906: A millionaire shoots dead a prominent architect in full view of a theatre audience. Through court and asylum records, letters and newspaper accounts, this book brings to life a period when the psychiatric professions were consolidating their hold on our understanding of what is human. An increasingly popular press allowed the public unprecedented insight into accounts of transgressive sexuality, savage jealousy and forbidden desires. With great story-telling flair, Lisa Appignanesi teases out the vagaries of passion and the clashes between the law and the clinic as they stumble towards a (sometimes reviled) collaboration. Sexual etiquette and class roles, attitudes to love, madness and gender, notions of respectability and honour, insanity and lunacy, all are at play in that vital forum in which public opinion is shaped - the theatre of the courtroom."--Publisher's description.