Illustrations of Madness

162 Pages·4.481 MB·English

by  John Haslam, Roy Porter

Psychology Revivals
Illustrations of Madness
John Haslam’s Illustrations of Madness, written in 1810, occupies a
special place in psychiatric history, it was the first book-length account
of one single psychiatric case written by a British psychiatrist. John
Haslam, apothecary to London’s Bethlem Hospital, and a leading psy-
chiatrist of the early-nineteenth century, details the case of James Tilly
Matthews, who had been a patient in the hospital for some ten years.
Matthews claimed he was sane, as did his friends and certain doctors.
Haslam, on behalf of the Bethlem authorities, contended he was insane,
and attempted to demonstrate this by presenting a detailed account of
Matthew’s own delusional system, as far as possible in Matthew’s own
words.
Originally published in 1988 as part of the Tavistock Classics in the
History of Psychiatry series, Roy Porter’s Introduction to this facsimile
reprint of an historic book goes beyond Haslam’s text to reveal the
extraordinary psychiatric politics surrounding Matthew’s confinement
and the court case it produced, leading up to Haslam’s dismissal from
his post. Still relevant today, Haslam’s account can be used as material
upon which to base a modern diagnosis of Matthew’s disorder.
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
Illustrations of Madness
John Haslam
Edited with an introduction by
Roy Porter
Firstpublishedin1988
byRoutledge
Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2014byRoutledge
27ChurchRoad,Hove,BN32FA
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
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©1988IntroductionbyRoyPorter
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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knownor hereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingand recording, orin any
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Publisher’sNote
Thepublisherhasgonetogreatlengthstoensurethequalityofthisreprintbut
pointsoutthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalcopiesmaybeapparent.
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The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes
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ALibraryofCongressrecordexistsunderISBN:0415006376
ISBN:978-0-415-71248-4(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-88397-7(ebk)
ILLUSTRATIONS
OF
MADNESS
BY
lOHN HASLAM
Edited with an Introduction by
Roy Porter
First published 1988
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1988 Introduction by Roy Porter
Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other me ans, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Haslam, John
Illustrations of madness.
1. Medicine. Psychiatry - Case studies
I. Title 11. Porter, Roy, 1946 -
In. Series
616.89'09
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Haslam, John, 1764-1844.
Illustrations of madnesslJohn Haslam; edited with an
introduction by Roy Porter.
p. cm. - (Tavistock classics in the history of psychiatry)
Reprint. Originally published: London: Printed by G. Hayden.
1810.
ISBN 0-415-00637-6
1. Mathews, James Tilly-Mental health. 2. Mentally ill-Great
Britain-Biography. 3. Mental illness-Case studies. I. Porter,
Roy, 1946- . 11. Title. III. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Mathews, James Tilly. WM H349i 1810a]
RC464.M379H371988
616.89---dc19
DNLM/DLC 88-18631
for Library of Congress CIP
ISBN 0-415-00637-6
CONTENTS
PREFACE
VB
Introduction by Roy Porter
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Illustrations of Madness
J
by ohn Haslam
1
V
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
PREFACE
The T avistock Classics in the History of Psychiatry series meets a
considerable need amongst academics, practitioners, and all those
who are more broadly inter es ted in the development of psychiatry.
Psychiatry as a discipline has always paid considerable heed to its
own founders, its history, and emergent traditions. It is one field in
which the relevance of the past to the present does not diminish.
There is a high professional awareness of the history of the subject,
and many aspects of this are now benefiting from fruitful dialogue
with the now rapidly expanding investigations of historians and
historical sociologists.
Yet two factors greatly hamper our grasp of psychiatry's past. On
the one hand, a considerable number of the formative texts in the
rise of psychiatry are exceedingly difficult to obtain, even from
libraries. As a small discipline in earlier centuries, many of the major
works were published only in small runs, and many, even of the
classics, have never been reprinted at all. This present series aims to
overcome this problem, by making available a selection of such key
works. MostlY they are books originally published in the English
language; in other cases where the originallanguage was, say, French
or German, we are reprinting contemporary English translations; in
a few cases, we hope to present entirely new translations of classic
Continental work.
On the other hand, in many instances little is commonly known
of the life and ideas of the authors of these texts, and their works
have never been subjected to thorough analyses. Our intention in
this series is to follow the model of the now defunct Dawson series
of psychiatric reprints, edited and introduced by Richard Hunter
..
Vll