Crazy brains and the weaker sex: the British case (1860-1900)
Psychiatry is sometimes described as a particularly sexist science, having contributed in the past to derogatory discourses on the inferiority of the so-called “weaker sex”, and colluded in practice with the consignment of women to mental institutions. The “mad-doctors” agreed to hospitalize “abnorm...
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| Wydane w: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cliowgh, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Język: | Anglais |
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Clio
2017
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| Dostęp online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:cliowgh_352 |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:cliowgh_352 https://doi.org/10.4000/cliowgh.352 urn:doi:10.4000/cliowgh.352 en https://journals.openedition.org/cliowgh/352 2017-04-20T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/e3rm All rights reserved Crazy brains and the weaker sex: the British case (1860-1900) Clio Belin info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2554-3822 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cliowgh Fauvel, Aude gender history psychiatry 19th century women Great Britain feminism medical misogyny Maudsley (Henry) Crichton-Browne (John) Lowe (Louisa) Weldon (Georgina) Psychiatry is sometimes described as a particularly sexist science, having contributed in the past to derogatory discourses on the inferiority of the so-called “weaker sex”, and colluded in practice with the consignment of women to mental institutions. The “mad-doctors” agreed to hospitalize “abnormal” women who dared to rebel against male desires. This article does not question the link between psychiatry and anti-feminism, but considers this history from another angle, by analysing the repercussions of this sexist standpoint on the shaping of medical knowledge, and conversely, on representations of female patients. The British case demonstrates that not all physicians accepted theories about women’s mental inferiority, and that such theories were sometimes contested by the patients themselves. “Psychiatric power” was not all-powerful, nor did it necessarily speak with one voice. By exploring the debates surrounding the “weaker brain” theory in nineteenth-century Britain, this paper aims to shed fresh light on the construction (and deconstruction) of psychiatric ideas, and to help understand how the subjects of such ideas – women patients – sometimes succeeded in challenging the views of their doctors, “from below”. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
gender history psychiatry 19th century women Great Britain feminism medical misogyny Maudsley (Henry) Crichton-Browne (John) Lowe (Louisa) Weldon (Georgina) |
| spellingShingle |
gender history psychiatry 19th century women Great Britain feminism medical misogyny Maudsley (Henry) Crichton-Browne (John) Lowe (Louisa) Weldon (Georgina) Fauvel, Aude Crazy brains and the weaker sex: the British case (1860-1900) |
| description |
Psychiatry is sometimes described as a particularly sexist science, having contributed in the past to derogatory discourses on the inferiority of the so-called “weaker sex”, and colluded in practice with the consignment of women to mental institutions. The “mad-doctors” agreed to hospitalize “abnormal” women who dared to rebel against male desires. This article does not question the link between psychiatry and anti-feminism, but considers this history from another angle, by analysing the repercussions of this sexist standpoint on the shaping of medical knowledge, and conversely, on representations of female patients. The British case demonstrates that not all physicians accepted theories about women’s mental inferiority, and that such theories were sometimes contested by the patients themselves. “Psychiatric power” was not all-powerful, nor did it necessarily speak with one voice. By exploring the debates surrounding the “weaker brain” theory in nineteenth-century Britain, this paper aims to shed fresh light on the construction (and deconstruction) of psychiatric ideas, and to help understand how the subjects of such ideas – women patients – sometimes succeeded in challenging the views of their doctors, “from below”. |
| author |
Fauvel, Aude |
| author_facet |
Fauvel, Aude |
| author_sort |
Fauvel, Aude |
| title |
Crazy brains and the weaker sex: the British case (1860-1900) |
| title_short |
Crazy brains and the weaker sex: the British case (1860-1900) |
| title_full |
Crazy brains and the weaker sex: the British case (1860-1900) |
| title_fullStr |
Crazy brains and the weaker sex: the British case (1860-1900) |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Crazy brains and the weaker sex: the British case (1860-1900) |
| title_sort |
crazy brains and the weaker sex: the british case (1860-1900) |
| publisher |
Clio |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cliowgh |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/cliowgh.352 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/cliowgh/352 |
| _version_ |
1877242327652630528 |