A history of madness in sixteenth-century Germany
By: H.C. Erik Midelfort.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 438
Subjects: Mental illness -- Germany -- History -- 16th century; Social psychiatry -- Germany -- History -- 16th century
Description: This work explores how Renaissance Germans understood and experienced madness. It focuses on the insanity of the world in general but also on specific disorders; examines the thinking on madness of theologians, jurists, and physicians; and analyzes the vernacular ideas that propelled sufferers to seek help in pilgrimage or newly founded hospitals for the helplessly disordered.

In the process, the author uses the history of madness as a lens to illuminate the history of the Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the history of poverty and social welfare, and the history of princely courts, state building, and the civilizing process.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [391]-425) and index.