Insanity In India

Download or read book The Confinement of the Insane written by Roy Porter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-08-07 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays explores the development of the lunatic asylum, and the concept of confinement for those considered insane, in different national contexts over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Leading scholars in the field of medical history have contributed extensive primary research through individual case studies in the context of the legal, social, economic, and political situations of thirteen different countries. The book represents the first truly international history of the mental hospital, and is, therefore, a landmark comparative study in the history of medicine.

Download or read book History of Mental Illness in India written by Horacio Fabrega (Jr.) and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining "mental illness" in societies where different world views, thought worlds, and hat patterns prevail is ordinarily frowned by social scientists since it involves analysis of phenomena steeped in modern conventions of knowledge. This book contravenes this position giving reasons for and ways of circumventing social science scruples. It formulates and provides details about the systems of healing of conditions of psychiatric interest that would have been found in ancient traditional and early modern period. It Draws on the findings of Indian epidemiologists who have surveyed the prevalence and distribution of psychiatric disorders in modern and traditional settings of contemporary India. Their finding Support the position that such conditions would have been found in earlier historical epochs. In the book, information from cultural anthropology in used to formulate ideas and a perspective that encompass salient cultural and historical parameters of India as a sociocultural entity which have stood the test of time. Emphasis is placed on how Indian culture, religion, morality, sociology, and philosophical psychology which shape the world view and habit patterns of Indian Peoples everywhere and throughout millennia. This nexus of ideas constituted the ontology and epistemology about psychiatric conditions in earlier historical epochs. It shaped their from, content and meaning and it provided a basis for approaches to healing. Normal and not so normal conceptions about behavior and well being are discussed based on indigenous systems of meaning. The manner in which psychiatric conditions were and still are formulated in the compilations of Caraka, Susruta, Vagbhata, and Bela are reviewed and compared along with religious and Spiritual Viewpoints. Discussion of approach to conditions of psychiatric interest rooted in traditional Indian values provides a basis for critique and plea for broadening the scope and depth of the already vibrant and scientifically compelling psychiatry of contemporary India. The book aims to make modern psychiatry more responsive to India’s understanding of the human conditions.

Download or read book Curing Madness? written by Shilpi Rajpal and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Curing Madness? focusses on the institutional and non-institutional histories of madness in colonial north India. It proves that 'madness' and its 'cure' are shifting categories which assumed new meanings and significance as knowledge travelled across cultural, medical, national, and regional boundaries. The book examines governmental policies, legal processes, diagnosis and treatment, and individual case histories by looking closely at asylums in Agra, Benaras, Bareilly, Lucknow, Delhi, and Lahore. Rajpal highlights that only a few mentally ill ended up in asylums; most people suffering from insanity were cared for by their families and local vaidyas, ojhas, and pundits. These practitioners of traditional medicine had to reinvent themselves to retain their relevance as Western medical knowledge was widely disseminated in colonial India. Evidence of this is found in the Hindi medical advice literature of the era. Taking these into account Shilpi Rajpal moves beyond asylum-centric histories to examine extensive archival materials gathered from various repositories.

Download or read book Lost in the Valley of Death written by Harley Rustad and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "By patient accumulation of anecdote and detail, Rustad evolves Shetler’s story into something much more human, and humanly tragic, into a layered inquisition and a reportorial force....suffice it to say Rustad has done what the best storytellers do: tried to track the story to its last twig and then stepped aside." —New York Times Book Review In the vein of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India—one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati Valley. For centuries, India has enthralled westerners looking for an exotic getaway, a brief immersion in yoga and meditation, or in rare cases, a true pilgrimage to find spiritual revelation. Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival, was one such seeker. In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler, quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global journey: across the United States by motorcycle, then down to South America, and on to the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal, in search of authentic experiences and meaningful encounters, while also documenting his travels on Instagram. His enigmatic character and magnetic personality gained him a devoted following who lived vicariously through his adventures. But the ever restless explorer was driven to pursue ever greater challenges, and greater risks, in what had become a personal quest—his own hero’s journey. In 2016, he made his way to the Parvati Valley, a remote and rugged corner of the Indian Himalayas steeped in mystical tradition yet shrouded in darkness and danger. There, he spent weeks studying under the guidance of a sadhu, an Indian holy man, living and meditating in a cave. At the end of August, accompanied by the sadhu, he set off on a “spiritual journey” to a holy lake—a journey from which he would never return. Lost in the Valley of Death is about one man’s search to find himself, in a country where for many westerners the path to spiritual enlightenment can prove fraught, even treacherous. But it is also a story about all of us and the ways, sometimes extreme, we seek fulfillment in life. Lost in the Valley of Death includes 16 pages of color photographs.

Download or read book Asylum: The Battle for Mental Healthcare in India written by Daman Singh and published by Westland Non-Fiction. This book was released on with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About the Book THE BATTLE FOR MENTAL HEALTHCARE IN INDIA PIECED TOGETHER FROM THE PAGES OF HISTORY With new insights into the human mind there is a better understanding of its disorders. Mental illness has ceased to be perceived as a mysterious malady and science offers accepted methods of diagnosis and treatment. In most countries, the mentally ill have the same rights as any other citizen. They live a life of dignity and with meaning. The days of forced confinement are gone, so too is the spectre of shame and of stigma. In India, the reform in mental healthcare began in the early 20th century, during British rule. What was it that prompted this move? Which were the new ideas that took root? Who were the people that pushed for change? How did political events and especially the World Wars and Partition affect progress? What changed when Indian doctors and administrators took over the management of mental hospitals? What did all of this mean for the treatment and care of the mentally ill? Daman Singh looks for answers to these questions in this intriguing account of a little-known battle spanning a century and more.

Download or read book Codification, Macaulay and the Indian Penal Code written by Barry Wright and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enacted in 1860, the Indian Penal Code is the longest serving and one of the most influential criminal codes in the common law world. This book commemorates its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary and honours the law reform legacy of Thomas Macaulay, the principal drafter of the Code. The book comprises chapters which examine the general principles of criminal responsibility from the perspective of Macaulay, and from more recent accounts by lawmakers and reformers. These are framed by chapters that examine the history and conceptual underpinnings of Macaulay's Code, consider the need to revitalize the Indian Penal Code, and review the current challenges of principled criminal law reform and codification. This book is a valuable reference on the Indian Penal Code, and current debates about general principles of criminal law for legal academics, judges, legal practitioners and criminal law reformers. It also promises to have wider scholarly appeal, of interest to legal theorists, historians and policy specialists.

Download or read book The Insanity Defense written by Abraham S. Goldstein and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1967-01-28 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The insanity defense has become the most passionately debated issue in criminal law, a debate marked by slogans and stereotypes. Mr. Goldstein offers a reasoned study of that debate and the current rules behind the law, as well as a careful examination of what might be expected from any new rules now proposed.