From Melancholia to Depression: Disordered Mood in Nineteenth-Century Psychiatry

Jansson, Åsa

This open access book maps a crucial but neglected chapter in the history of psychiatry: how was melancholia transformed in the nineteenth century from traditional melancholy madness into a modern biomedical mood disorder, paving the way for the emergence of clinical depression as a psychiatric illness in the twentieth century? At a time when the prevalence of mood disorders and antidepressant consumption are at an all-time high, the need for a comprehensive historical understanding of how modern depressive illness came into being has never been more urgent. This book addresses a significant gap in existing scholarly literature on melancholia, depression, and mood disorders by offering a contextualised and critical perspective on the history of melancholia in the first decades of psychiatry, from the 1830s until the turn of the twentieth century. 

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2021-09-23

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9783030548049

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-54802-5

Dimensions: 210.0cm x148.0cm

Pages: 234.0