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Insanity and the realities of history in early modern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Michael MacDonald
Michael MacDonald*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor Michael MacDonald, Department of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
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Synopsis

This paper argues that the attack on religious enthusiasm, a campaign against popular religious radicalism, prompted the governing classes in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England to embrace secular explanations of the nature of insanity and to repudiate treatments which were based on religious and magical beliefs. An objection to the argument is considered, and some of its implications are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1981 , pp. 11 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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