Manic Minds
172 pages, 6 x 9
12 photographs
Paperback
Release Date:22 Nov 2011
ISBN:9780813551586
From its first depictions in ancient medical literature to contemporary depictions in brain imaging, mania has been largely associated with its Greek roots, "to rage." Prior to the nineteenth century, "mania" was used interchangeably with "madness." Although its meanings shifted over time, the word remained layered with the type of madness first-century writers described: rage, fury, frenzy. Even now, the mental illness we know as bipolar disorder describes conditions of extreme irritability, inflated grandiosity, and excessive impulsivity.
Spanning several centuries, Manic Minds traces the multiple ways in which the word "mania" has been used by popular, medical, and academic writers. It reveals why the rhetorical history of the word is key to appreciating descriptions and meanings of the "manic" episode." Lisa M. Hermsen examines the way medical professionals analyzed the manic condition during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and offers the first in-depth analysis of contemporary manic autobiographies: bipolar figures who have written from within the illness itself.
Spanning several centuries, Manic Minds traces the multiple ways in which the word "mania" has been used by popular, medical, and academic writers. It reveals why the rhetorical history of the word is key to appreciating descriptions and meanings of the "manic" episode." Lisa M. Hermsen examines the way medical professionals analyzed the manic condition during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and offers the first in-depth analysis of contemporary manic autobiographies: bipolar figures who have written from within the illness itself.
Bringing together current science studies concepts and the social history of mental illness, Lisa Hermsen provides an innovative approach to mania as a dynamic, rhetorical and material figure.
In this wonderfully smart and lively account of mania/bipolar disorder, Lisa Hermsen explores the rhetorical history and multiple realities of a 'mental disorder' haunted by its insistent ties to madness.
Manic Minds tells a thorough history of mania from a medical and personal perspective. Highly recommended.
Bringing together current science studies concepts and the social history of mental illness, Lisa Hermsen provides an innovative approach to mania as a dynamic, rhetorical and material figure.
In this wonderfully smart and lively account of mania/bipolar disorder, Lisa Hermsen explores the rhetorical history and multiple realities of a 'mental disorder' haunted by its insistent ties to madness.
Manic Minds tells a thorough history of mania from a medical and personal perspective. Highly recommended.
LISA M. HERMSEN is an associate professor in the English department at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she teaches courses in the rhetoric of science and the history of madness.
List of Figures
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Mania’s Mad History and Its Neuro-Future
1. Mania Multiplies with Fury: Textbook Descriptions of the Psychopathology
2. The Maniac and the Iconography of Reform
3. Midwestern Mania: Genetics in the Heartland
4. Manic Lives: Mad Memoirs
5. Neuropsychiatry, Pharmacology, and Imaging the New Mania
Epilogue: A Mad, Mad World
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: Mania’s Mad History and Its Neuro-Future
1. Mania Multiplies with Fury: Textbook Descriptions of the Psychopathology
2. The Maniac and the Iconography of Reform
3. Midwestern Mania: Genetics in the Heartland
4. Manic Lives: Mad Memoirs
5. Neuropsychiatry, Pharmacology, and Imaging the New Mania
Epilogue: A Mad, Mad World
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Related Titles
