Europeans in India had ambivalent feelings towards their mentally deranged compatriots. The authorities encouraged medical practitioners to treat European "lunatics" with kindness and respect, but they also insisted on segregating them from the European public, as well as from Indians. This attitude did not simply echo practices in the colonial motherland: it is closely linked to the British imperative of preserving the prestige of the ruling race. Like poor Europeans and vagrants, "lunatics" were seen as tarnishing the image of the British in India. "Mad Tales From the Raj" is an extensively researched study of European "insanity" within the context of British colonalism in early 19th century India. The author challenges the assumption that western medical psychology was impartial, and highlights the extent to which it not only reflected British colonial ideology and practice, but also helped to shape the interaction between rulers and ruled. Waltraud Ernst, a psychologist and historian, shows how the "colonial twist" assumed by European lunacy policy in India is reflected in psychological assessment and clinical treatment. She also discusses individual patients' life-stories and their experiences of confinement in asylums in India and England. Based on archival sources and medical experts' reports, the book provides an account of contemporary psychiatric treatment and colonial policies. It will be of interest not only to students of colonial history, medical sociology and related disciplines, but to all those with a general interest in British life in the colonies.

Mad Tales from the Raj: The European Insane in British India, 1800-1858 (The Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Ernst, Waltraud

Psychology & Counseling

Routledge

Histories of the Normal and the Abnormal (Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine)

This fascinating volume tackles the history of the terms 'normal' and 'abnormal'. Originally meaning 'as occurring in nature', normality has taken on significant cultural gravitas and this book recognizes and explores that fact. The essays engage with the concepts of the normal and the abnormal from the perspectives of a variety of academic disciplines – ranging from art history to social history of medicine, literature, and science studies to sociology and cultural anthropology. The contributors use as their conceptual anchors the works of moral and political philosophers such as Canguilhem, Foucault and Hacking, as well as the ideas put forward by sociologists including Durkheim and Illich. With contributions from a range of scholars across differing disciplines, this book will have a broad appeal to students in many areas of history.

Histories of the Normal and the Abnormal: Social and Cultural Histories of Norms and Normativity (Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine)

History

Americas

Since the 1980s there has been a continual engagement with the history and the place of western medicine in colonial settings and non-western societies. In relation to South Asia, research on the role of medicine has focussed primarily on regions under direct British administration. This book looks at the ‘princely states’ that made up about two fifths of the subcontinent. Two comparatively large states, Mysore and Travancore – usually considered as ‘progressive’ and ‘enlightened’ – and some of the princely states of Orissa – often described as ‘backward’ and ‘despotic’ – have been selected for analysis. The authors map developments in public health and psychiatry, the emergence of specialised medical institutions, the influence of western medicine on indigenous medical communities and their patients and the interaction between them. Exploring contentious issues currently debated in the existing scholarship on medicine in British India and other colonies, this book covers the ‘indigenisation’ of health services; the inter-relationship of colonial and indigenous paradigms of medical practice; the impact of specific political and administrative events and changes on health policies. The book also analyses British medical policies and the Indian reactions and initiatives they evoked in different Indian states. It offers new insights into the interplay of local adaptations with global exchanges between different national schools of thought in the formation of what is often vaguely, and all too simply, referred to as 'western' or 'colonial' medicine. A pioneering study of health and medicine in the princely states of India, it provides a balanced appraisal of the role of medicine during the colonial era. It will be of interest to students and academics studying South Asian and imperial and commonwealth history; the history of medicine; the sociology of health and healing; and medical anthropology, social policy, public health, and international politics.

Health and Medicine in the Indian Princely States: 1850-1950 (Routledge Studies in South Asian History)

Pati, Biswamoy

Sekher, T.V.

Reference

This book focuses on the Ranchi Indian Mental Hospital, the largest public psychiatric facility in colonial India during the 1920s and 1930s. It breaks new ground by offering unique material for a critical engagement with the phenomenon of the ‘indigenisation’ or ‘Indianisation’ of the colonial medical services and the significance of international professional networks. The work also provides a detailed assessment of the role of gender and race in this field, and of Western and culturally specific medical treatments and diagnoses. The volume offers an unprecedented look at both the local and global factors that had a strong bearing on hospital management and psychiatric treatment at this institution.

Colonialism and Transnational Psychiatry: The Development of an Indian Mental Hospital in British India, c. 1925–1940 (Anthem South Asian Studies)

Asia

Anthem Press

Histories of the Normal and the Abnormal: Social and Cultural Histories of Norms and Normativity

Mad Tales from the Raj: Colonial Psychiatry in South Asia, 1800-58 (Anthem South Asian Studies)

‘Mad Tales from the Raj’ is an authoritative assessment of western psychiatry within the context of British colonialism. This revised version provides a comprehensive study of official attitudes and practices in relation to both Indian and European patients during the dominance of the British East India Company. It is fascinating reading not only to students of colonial history, medical sociology and related disciplines, but to all those with a general interest in life in the colonies.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ernst, Waltraud. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ernst, Waltraud