Troubled by Faith : Insanity and the Supernatural in the Age of the Asylum

The nineteenth century was a time of extraordinary scientific innovation, but with the rise of psychiatry, faiths and popular beliefs were often seen as signs of a diseased mind. By exploring the beliefs of asylum patients, we see the nineteenth century in a new light, with science, faith, and the supernatural deeply entangled in a fast-changing world. The birth of psychiatry in the early nineteenth-century fundamentally changed how madness was categorised and understood. A century on, their conceptions of mental illness continue to influence our views today. Beliefs and behaviour were divided up into the pathological and the healthy. The influence of religion and the supernatural became significant measures of insanity in individuals, countries, and cultures. Psychiatrists not only thought they could transform society in the industrial age but also explain the many strange beliefs expressed in the distant past. Troubled by Faith explores these ideas about the supernatural across society through the prism of medical history. It is a story of how people continued to make sense of the world in supernatural terms, and how belief came to be a medical issue. This cannot be done without exploring the lives of those who found themselves in asylums because of their belief in ghosts, witches, angels, devils, and fairies, or because they though themselves in divine communication, or were haunted by modern technology. The beliefs expressed by asylum patients were not just an expression of their individual mental health, but also provide a unique reflection of society at the time - a world still steeped in the ideas and imagery of folklore and faith in a fast-changing world. Cover Troubled by Faith: Insanity and the Supernatural in the Age of the Asylum Copyright Acknowledgements Preface Contents List of figures PART I: A world of insanity Introduction Foundations The rise of the asylum 1: Explaining away the witch trials Invisible fluids and brain organs Demonomania and the new demonologists The psychiatrist as historian What about witches? Too many manias Writing hystory The new witch prickers Gazing into the subconscious 2: Pathologizing the supernatural present Demonomania redux Exorcizing the demons from medical discourse Religion as contemporary disease Evangelical super spreaders Symptom or cause? Spiritualism shakes things up Keeping it in the family 3: Madness in popular medicine Frightened mad Looking to the skies Moon madness Mad as a dog Fits Supernatural agency Kill or cure 4: The mad, the bad, and the supernatural in court The Devil made me do it The Devil gives way to delusion Eccentric or insane? The age of the experts Wills and witches Of spirits and undue influence PART II: Inner lives Introduction Reading the records Life in the asylum 5: Between Heaven and Hell Dealing with the religious Religious persecution Bibles and books Prophets, revelations, and the Second Coming Assuming divinity Saints and angels Visions of Heaven Dealing with the Devil 6: Encounters with witches, spirits, and fairies From accusation to asylum Witchery in the asylum Feeling bewitched Haunted by spirits Fairies on the mind 7: Making sense of science and technology The rise of the machine Mental science Electrickery Power and persecution Suspect devices Epilogue Endnotes Part 1: Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Part 2: Introduction Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Index The only major study of early psychiatry, religion, and the supernatural Provides an original new social history of the nineteenth century Offers a unique survey of hundreds of asylum patient case notes to explore popular beliefs about witches, ghosts, fairies, angels, and devils Shows how different cultures and faiths in Europe and America were influenced and portrayed as insane because of their beliefs Puts contemporary beliefs in the supernatural and radical religion in historic context Asks readers to question who would be considered insane today under the criteria proposed by nineteenth century psychiatrists