Portraits of the Insane by Robert Snell
The book sketches the history of this last process, from the Enlightenment through to the Revolution and its public health policies, to the birth of the asylum in its interface with the penal system. But there was also a new medico-philosophical conviction that the mad were never wholly mad.
'The scope of this book is remarkableRobert Snell's meditation on five portraits of mad people by Gericault is the springboard for a fascinating cultural investigation. He surveys two centuries of change in the understanding of human nature, and considers how this is reflected in changing approaches to the treatment of madness. The breadth and depth of scholarship on offer here is exceptional, and this admirable book is an object lesson in the relation of psychoanalysis to the history of ideas.'- Michael Parsons, British Psychoanalytical Society and French Psychoanalytic Association'This important book is for anyone interested in how history affects who we are. In a fascinating and rigorous account, Robert Snell shows us the link between emancipatory and repressive forces in ourselves, and such forces in society.'- Professor Del Loewenthal, Director of the Research Centre for Therapeutic Education, University of Roehampton, London'Gericault's depictions of the insane are among the most compelling images produced during the Romantic era in France. Robert Snell balances art-historical andpsychoanalytic readings in an interplay between biography, intellectual and cultural history, and the history of madness and post-Revolutionary painting. Insightful questions reveal the psychoanalyst's skilful probing, deftly integrated with keen visual analyses which clarify links between the paintings and their historical matrix. This is an original analysis, in a distinctive and engaging voice.'- Therese Dolan, Professor of Art History, Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, USA
Robert Snell is an analytic psychotherapist, a member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Therapeutic Education at Roehampton University. He has a doctorate in the history of art from the Courtauld Institute, and is the author of 'Theophile Gautier: A Romantic Critic of the Visual Arts', co-author with Del Loewenthal of 'Postmodernism for Psychotherapists: A Critical Reader'), and author of 'Uncertainties, Mysteries, Doubts. Romanticism and the Analytic Attitude'.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781782202479 |
| ISBN 10 | 1782202471 |
| Title | Portraits of the Insane |
| Author | Robert Snell |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis Ltd |
| Year published | 2016-09-28 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |