Memory, Anniversaries and Mental Health in International Historical Perspective: Faith in Reform

This book explores memory, misremembering, forgetting, and anniversaries in the history of psychiatry and mental health, challenging simplistic representations and problematizing the idea of a shared professional and institutional history. It demonstrates the variety of remembering and forgetting, building on recent interest in the ideological and cultural linkages between past and present in international psychiatric practice.

Format: Hardback
Length: 314 pages
Publication date: 03 August 2023
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This groundbreaking book delves into the intricate realms of memory, misremembering, forgetting, and anniversaries in the history of psychiatry and mental health, offering a comprehensive and nuanced exploration. It challenges the simplistic narratives that often portray the past as a cruel and uncaring era for those with mental health concerns, while also avoiding the celebratory and uncritical glorification of anniversaries and individuals. By critically interrogating the early Whiggish histories of mental health care, the book challenges the notion of a shared professional and institutional history and the unwavering faith placed in medical reform, administration, and even patient treatment. It argues that much post-1800 legislation, intended to bring about reform, actually served to perpetuate beliefs about the 'bad old days' and a 'brighter future' in the state memories of imperial powers, which were then exported worldwide.

Conversely, the collection showcases the diverse spectrum of remembering and forgetting, building upon recent interest in the ideological and cultural connections between the past and present in international psychiatric practice. Through this exploration, the book aims to trace the pathways of memory, unraveling the direction of travel, and examining the perpetuation, remodeling, and uprooting of recollection.

Chapter "The New Socialist Citizen and 'Forgetting Authoritarianism: Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Revolution in Socialist Yugoslavia" is made freely accessible to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License through the provided link: {URL}. This chapter provides a valuable insight into the unique context of socialist Yugoslavia, where psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and revolution converged to shape the mental health landscape of the nation.

Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031229770
Edition number: 1st ed. 2023