A History of Delusions: The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse
Author: Shepherd, Victoria
ISBN: 9780861545308
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Year first published: 03 Oct 2023
Pages: 352 Format: Paperback / softback
'Fascinating and compassionate' Horatio Clare
The King of France thinking he was made of glass was terrified he might shatter -and he wasn't alone.
After the Emperor met his end at Waterloo, an epidemic of Napoleons piled into France's asylums.
Throughout the nineteenth century, dozens of middle-aged women tried to convince their physicians that they were, in fact, dead.
For centuries we've dismissed delusions as something for doctors to sort out behind locked doors. But delusions are more than just bizarre quirks they hold the key to collective anxieties and traumas.
In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd uncovers stories of delusions from medieval times to the present day and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness.
ISBN: 9780861545308
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Year first published: 03 Oct 2023
Pages: 352 Format: Paperback / softback
'Fascinating and compassionate' Horatio Clare
The King of France thinking he was made of glass was terrified he might shatter -and he wasn't alone.
After the Emperor met his end at Waterloo, an epidemic of Napoleons piled into France's asylums.
Throughout the nineteenth century, dozens of middle-aged women tried to convince their physicians that they were, in fact, dead.
For centuries we've dismissed delusions as something for doctors to sort out behind locked doors. But delusions are more than just bizarre quirks they hold the key to collective anxieties and traumas.
In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd uncovers stories of delusions from medieval times to the present day and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness.
