| Description |
1 online resource (1 volume.) : illustrations (black and white). |
| Series |
Mental health in historical perspective |
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Mental health in historical perspective.
|
| Access |
Open access. GW5XE |
| Contents |
1. Rough Skin: An Introduction -- Part I. Pellagra -- 2. Medical Reactions to a New Disease in the Eighteenth Century -- 3. The Aetiological Turn in the Nineteenth Century -- 4.The Bacteriological Divide: Pellagra in Italy and the United States during the Twentieth Century -- Interlude: Patient Voices -- Part II. Pellagrous Insanity -- 5. Institutionalising Pellagrous Insanity -- 6. Understanding Insanity: Pellagra and General Paralysis of the Insane in Italy and the United Kingdom -- 7. Experiencing the Asylum -- 8. Conclusion: Leaving the Asylum. |
| Summary |
This open access book explores the history of pellagra, a vitamin deficiency disease brought about by a shift in agriculture to maize, which ravaged Italy from the 1760s. With a focus on the insanity that was caused by the disease, the authors examine how thousands of patients were treated in Italian psychiatric asylums, shedding light on the sufferers point of view. Setting pellagrous insanity in a wider context of man-made or societal (anthropogenic) disease, where poverty, diet and disease meet, the book contributes to the history of medicine and science, the history of psychiatry, economic and social history, agrarian history, and food and nutrition history. Additionally, the authors aim to transnationalise Italian history by making comparisons with related issues, such as tertiary syphilis in the UK. Drawing from a wide range of printed and archival sources, including the writings of Italian medical investigators and patient records, the book examines how medical and scientific research was carried out during the long nineteenth century and the uncertainties that this engendered, in terms of classification, explanation, diagnosis and treatment. Offering a unique perspective on an endemic illness which came to be known as the disease of the four ds -- dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia and deaththis book provides an engaging account of one of the most perplexing causes of mental illness. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Note |
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on June 07, 2023). |
| Local Note |
Springer Nature Springer Nature - SpringerLink eBooks - Fully Open Access |
| Subject |
Mental health services -- Italy -- History -- 19th century.
|
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Mentally ill -- Care -- Italy -- History -- 19th century.
|
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Pellagra -- Italy -- History -- 19th century.
|
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Mental health services
|
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Mentally ill -- Care
|
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Pellagra
|
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Italy https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJvd8mVMcRhwVmbtcqCPcP
|
| Chronological Term |
1800-1899
|
| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Added Author |
Priani, Egidio, author.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: GENTILCORE, DAVID. PRIANI, EGIDIO. PELLAGRA AND PELLAGROUS INSANITY DURING THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY. [Place of publication not identified] : PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2022 3031224957 (OCoLC)1349450989 |
| ISBN |
9783031224966 electronic book |
|
3031224965 electronic book |
|
9783031224959 |
|
9783031224980 |
|
3031224957 |
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3031224981 |
| Standard No. |
10.1007/978-3-031-22496-6 doi |
|
