Author Description

The phenomenon of madness--to experience a distortion of one's perception of the world or be outside common sense--has both fascinated and frightened mankind throughout the ages. Over the past 200 years, however, perceptions and descriptions of insanity have changed and research has progressed. This book is precisely about how research has changed views on insanity, as well as new treatment techniques that have come to be accepted and rejected. It compares the psychiatric diagnostic system of the early 1800s with the system of the 1980s. The book describes madness throughout time, how modern psychiatry was established in Sweden, stable and unstable behavior manifestations of insanity, mental disorders, and potential diagnostic perspectives. When describing insanity or mental disorders, interactions with the self and the outside world should be considered along with other explanatory theories.