Postgraduate Course: Madness, Psychiatry and Society in Britain since 1700 (online) (PGHC11638)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will introduce students to key debates and approaches in the social history of madness and psychiatry. We will explore the forces - social, medical and political - that have shaped definitions of, attitudes and responses to madness in post-1700 Britain, how madness and its treatment have been experienced, and the impact of an emerging psychiatric profession. |
| Course description |
This course will introduce students to key debates and approaches in the social history of madness and psychiatry, through in-depth analysis of this vibrant field's scholarship in conjunction with a rich range of primary source materials. We will explore the forces - social, medical and political - that have shaped definitions of, attitudes and responses to madness in post-1700 Britain. The impact of an emerging psychiatric profession will be examined, alongside the searing critiques it has been subjected to from fellow healthcare professionals, scholars, patients and 'survivors'. We will also consider how both madness and its treatment have been experienced, and the methodological complexityof accessing and assessing these experiences.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
174 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework:
4,000 word essay (80%)
Non-written skills:
Participation on discussion forum: one reading response and one reply to another post per week (20%)
|
| Feedback |
All students will be requested to submit an essay plan for formative feedback in advance of the submission deadline. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically evaluate scholarship and primary source materials relating to the history of madness and mental healthcare in modern Britain
- Formulate appropriate questions, and develop and sustain scholarly arguments in response, utilising relevant evidence
- Engage constructively with other students through discussion forum participation
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Reading List
Peter Bartlett and David Wright (eds), Outside the Walls of the Asylum: The History of Care in the Community, 1750-2000 (1999)
Peter Beresford and Jasna Russo (eds), The Routledge International Handbook of Mad Studies (2022)
Jessica Campbell and Gayle Davis, '"A Crisis of Transition": Menstruation and the Psychiatrisation of the Female Lifecycle in 19th-Century Edinburgh', Open Library of Humanities, 8:1 (2022), 1-25
Anne Digby, 'Women's Biological Straitjacket', in Susan Mendus and Jane Rendall (eds), Sexuality and Subordination: Interdisciplinary Studies of Gender in the Nineteenth Century (1989), 192-220
Robert Ellis, Sarah Kendal and Steven Taylor (eds), Voices in the History of Madness: Personal and Professional Perspectives on Mental Health and Illness (2021)
Alison Haggett, A History of Male Psychological Disorders in Britain,1945-1980 (2015)
George Ikkos and Nick Bouras (eds), Mind, State and Society: Social History of Psychiatry and Mental Health in Britain, 1960-2010 (2021) Despo Kritsotaki, Vicky Long and Matthew Smith (eds)
Deinstitutionalisation and After: Post-War Psychiatry in the Western World (2016) Leonard Smith, Lunatic Hospitals in Georgian England, 1750-1830
(2007)
Keir Waddington, 'The Rise of the Asylum', in Keir Waddington, An Introduction to the Social History of Medicine: Europe since 1500 (2011), 317-338
OisÃn Wall, The British Anti-Psychiatrists: From Institutional Psychiatry to the Counter-Culture, 1960-1971 (2017)
David Wright, 'Asylums and Alienists: The Institutional Foundations of Psychiatry, 1760-1914', in David McCallum (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences (2022), 1253-71 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Assimilate, process and communicate a wide range of information from a variety of sources.
Process and critically assess information derived from historical research, utilising theoretical and methodological knowledge and skills specific to the subject area.
Analyse and critically evaluate ideas, evidence and experiences.
Master practical skills in accessing and interpreting historical sources.
Provide clear written and oral analyses based on historical information.
Construct and pursue a coherent and well evidenced argument. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Gayle Davis
Tel:
Email: Gayle.Davis@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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