HIST4488 · History

American Madness: History of Mental Illness in the United States

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Fulfills the US History requirement for History Majors This course explores the history of mental illness in America from the colonial era to the late twentieth century. It examines how ideas about mental illness changed over time; how it was understood by medical professions and laypeople; how ideas about mental illness reflected larger social beliefs about race, gender, and class; and how various strategies for curing mental disease or dealing with the mentally ill have evolved. Topics include: humanitarian reform and the nineteenth-century asylum movement; the history of somatic-based treatments such as hydrotherapy, electroshock treatment, and lobotomy; psychoanalysis; and deinstitutionalization and the community mental health care movement.