George III's Illnesses and his Doctors: A Study in Early Psychiatry

In the late eighteenth century, mental illness was treated with brutal and inhumane methods by mad-doctors, and the treatment of George III was no exception. James Lucett, an unqualified quack practitioner, was sought by the royal family in the hope of finding a cure for the king's insanity. This book provides fresh evidence and understanding of the case, and how it helped to change attitudes towards the treatment of the insane in the nineteenth century.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 07 February 2023
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd

In the late eighteenth century, mental illness was subjected to cruel and inhumane treatments by so-called "mad doctors," and the case of George III was no exception. George III's Illnesses and His Doctors offers a poignant, forensic, and sympathetic portrayal of how and why members of the royal family resorted to an unqualified quack practitioner, James Lucett, in their desperate quest to find a cure for the king's insanity. Much has been written about the "Mad King George" in the past. This book presents fresh evidence and a new understanding of the case of the "mad king." Lucett's claims were put to the test in psychiatry's first therapeutic trial, and science was invoked to enhance our understanding of the origins of insanity. The results were mixed, but nonetheless, George III's case and the subsequent career of the deeply flawed Lucett played significant roles in the revolutionary shift in attitudes toward the treatment of the insane that occurred as the nineteenth century progressed.

Based closely on primary source material, George III's Illnesses and His Doctors is a poignant tale of human suffering, but it is also a story of efforts to challenge medical orthodoxy and to improve our understanding of mental illness. Some of the issues raised in the early nineteenth century remain unresolved even today.

Weight: 616g
Dimension: 165 x 242 x 35 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399060271