On the History of Lunacy: The 19th Century and After

Edward H Hare

Gabbay, pp 176

ISBN 0953269906

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History, to quote Voltaire, is a trick the living play on the dead. All too often the trick involves myths about the past being used to buttress current theories or practices. By means of a conjuring trick, the wisdom of former times is shown to coincide remarkably with the interests of currently dominant groups. This approach, which suppresses variability or ambiguity, makes the past monolithic.

Edward Hare's work was quite at odds with such …