Three hundred years of psychiatry, 1535-1860

This is the first fully documented chronicle of British psychiatry from its beginnings until it had grown into an established branch of medicine. It is presented in readings selected from original sources covering an unprecedented range of material both printed and manuscript from public and private archives. Since the rise of psychiatry is closely linked with medical and social history and the humanities, the authors have combed the writings of medical men, physiologists and psychologists, of divines, jurists, men of letters, philanthropists, philosophers, even self-accounts of patients, the Statutes of the Realm and reports of Parliamentary Committees.