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The inner side of wisdom: suicide in early modern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Michael MacDonald
Michael MacDonald*
Affiliation:
From the 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 essay traces the shifting perception of the nature and prevalence of suicide in early modern England. Suicide is presented as one form of deviance contemporaries recognized and is used to illuminate the history of mental disorder in its social and intellectual context.

Daft Meg [an idiot and suicide] was a sort of household familiar among us, and there was much like the inner side of wisdom in the pattern of her sayings, many of which are still preserved as proverbs.

John Galt, Annals of the Parish, p. 126.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , November 1977 , pp. 565 - 582
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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