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Shattered Nerves: Doctors, Patients, and Depression in Victorian England
Shattered Nerves Doctors Patients and Depression in Victorian England Author:Janet Oppenheim In this brilliant cultural and intellectual history, Oppenheim shows how British doctors and patients made sense of the problem of depression. Physicians searched for physical causes for mental illness, believing the nervous system maintained a charge of "nerve force," much like a battery; only after World War I did Freud's revolution in psycho... more »logy penetrate British medicine. She also reveals the social prejudices--about sexuality, gender roles, etc.--that shaped the theories (even as she offers many surprises about Victorian psychology). This in-depth account offers important new insight into nineteenth-century British culture, society, and medical thought.« less