Troubled by Faith: Insanity and the Supernatural in the Age of the Asylum
Owen Davies
Nov 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Michael Langan
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13 hr 27 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
The birth of psychiatry in the early nineteenth-century fundamentally changed how madness was categorized and understood. A century on, their conceptions of mental illness continue to influence our views today. Beliefs and behavior were divided up into the pathological and the healthy. The influence of religion and the supernatural became significant measures of insanity in individuals, countries, and cultures. Psychiatrists not only thought they could transform society in the industrial age but also explain the many strange beliefs expressed in the distant past. Troubled by Faith explores these ideas about the supernatural across society through the prism of medical history. It is a story of how people continued to make sense of the world in supernatural terms, and how belief came to be a medical issue. This cannot be done without exploring the lives of those who found themselves in asylums because of their belief in ghosts, witches, angels, devils, and fairies, or because they thought themselves in divine communication or were haunted by modern technology. The beliefs expressed by asylum patients were not just an expression of their individual mental health, but also provide a unique reflection of society at the time-a world still steeped in the ideas and imagery of folklore and faith in a fast-changing world.
About the author
Owen Davies is professor of social history at the University of Hertfordshire. He has published widely on the history of witchcraft, magic, ghosts, and popular medicine, including Grimoires: A History of Magic Books, Paganism: A Very Short Introduction, and America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft after Salem.
As the middle of six children, Michael Langan quickly carved out his space in the group; he was the storyteller. Out in the real world, he would work in office and administration roles until he quit his job in 2020, deciding to become a full-time voice-over artist and a background artist in film and television productions.
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