A propos de l'auteur
Andrew Scull is Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is past president of the Society for the Social History of Medicine and the author of numerous books including Madness in Civilization, Hysteria and others.
Crédit image: Andrew T. Scull
Œuvres de Andrew T. Scull
Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity, from the Bible to Freud, from the Madhouse to Modern Medicine (2015) 207 exemplaires
Undertaker of the Mind: John Monro and Mad-Doctoring in Eighteenth-Century England (2001) 34 exemplaires
Madhouses, mad-doctors, and madmen : the social history of psychiatry in the Victorian era (1980) 25 exemplaires
Social Order/Mental Disorder: Anglo-American Psychiatry in Historical Perspective (Medicine and Society) (1989) 18 exemplaires
Museums of madness : the social organization of insanity in nineteenth-century England (1979) 16 exemplaires
Decarceration: Community Treatment and the Deviant - A Radical View (A Spectrum book ; S-401) (1977) 11 exemplaires
The Insanity of Place / The Place of Insanity: Essays on the History of Psychiatry (Routledge Studies in Cultural… (2006) 9 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1947-05-02
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- UK
- Lieu de naissance
- Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Lieux de résidence
- La Jolla, California, USA
- Études
- Oxford University (Balliol College|BA|1969)
Princeton University (MA|1971)
Princeton University (PhD|Sociology|1974) - Professions
- Professor (Sociology|UC San Diego)
- Organisations
- Society for the Social History of Medicine
University of California, San Diego
Membres
Critiques
Listes
Prix et récompenses
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 20
- Membres
- 687
- Popularité
- #36,816
- Évaluation
- 3.8
- Critiques
- 13
- ISBN
- 79
- Langues
- 2
For example, he explains how getting rid of psychiatric hospitals in favor of outpatient care seemed to be the result of legislators trying to save a buck rather than the beneficence of citizens. He describes this as changing one form “benign neglect” into another. He also describes more recent controversies about the efficacy of pharmacological treatments. He is rather cynical about the value of these drugs. He points out the problems and imperfection but has little understanding of why they are abundantly used. Even if they mask symptoms instead of curing, they work better than almost every alternative.
I found myself at odds with much of his strongly stated recommendations for its future. He simply does not admit his limitations as a man of letters without any experience with the clinical domain. Any answers for the future will surely come together from the consensus of diverse teams and communities, not from seemingly all-knowing academic individuals. He offers no way forward for psychiatric clinicians other than stating that they should be more attentive to the social domain. If drugs don’t work well, then why are they so widely used? (And why do they seem to help me?)
Thus, my review of this work is mixed. The history is outstanding and objective, but the analysis of recent controversies is driven more by Scull’s opinion and less by a restrained view of the facts. He becomes a hyperbolic social advocate (by training, he is a sociologist) and stays away from scientific study that looks for opportunities and learning.
Those involved in the American and British mental health systems can benefit from reading this work. There is no manual to the system, and whether professionals or patients, we all learn by trial and error how to make progress. This book can aid in that process, regardless of what we think of his recommendations. To be effective, the mental health system needs more attention, thought, funding, and study on many fronts. I think we can all agree on that.… (plus d'informations)