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Diagnosing Literary Genius:

A Cultural History of Psychiatry in Russia, 1880-1930

ISBN-13: 9780801867828
Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Imprint: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
By Irina Sirotkina
Price: AUD $120.00
Stock: 0 in stock
Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 16/03/2002
Format: Hardback 288 pages Weight: 0g
Categories: Literature & literary studies [D]Literary studies: general [DSB]

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The vital place of literature and the figure of the writer in Russian society and history have been extensively studied, but their role in the evolution of psychiatry is less well known. In Diagnosing Literary Genius: A Cultural History of Psychiatry in Russia, 1880-1930, Irina Sirotkina explores the transformations of Russian psychiatric practice through its relationship to literature. During this period, psychiatrists began to view literature as both an indicator of the nation's mental health and an integral part of its well-being. By aligning themselves with writers, psychiatrists argued that the aim of their science was not dissimilar to the literary project of exploring the human soul and reflecting on the psychological ailments of the age. Through the writing of pathographies (medical biographies), psychiatrists strengthened their social standing, debated political issues under the guise of literary criticism, and asserted moral as well as professional claims. By examining the psychiatric engagement with the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and the decadents and revolutionaries, Sirotkina provides a rich account of Russia's medical and literary history during this turbulent revolutionary period.

Contents:

Preface

On Transliteration and Spelling

Introduction

1 Gogol, Moralists, and Nineteenth-Century Psychiatry

2 Dostoevsky: From Epilepsy to Progeneration

3 Tolstoy and the Beginning of Psychotherapy in Russia

4 Decadents, Revolutionaries, and the Nation's Mental Health

5 The Institute of Genius: Psychiatry in the Early Soviet Years

Notes

Bibliography

Index

""An interesting and respectable history of a critical time in Russia's history.""

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Diagnosing Literary Genius:

A Cultural History of Psychiatry in Russia, 1880-1930