Bernard Mandeville: A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases (1730)

Softcover Nachdruck of the original 1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-319-86247-7
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, Band 223, 238 Seiten, Previously published in hardcover, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 382 g

Reihe: International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées

This work reflects on hypochondria as well as on the global functioning of the human mind and on the place of the patient/physician relationship in the wider organisation of society. First published in 1711, revised and enlarged in 1730, and now edited and published with a critical apparatus for the first time, this is a major work in the history of medical literature as well as a complex literary creation. Composed of three dialogues between a physician and two of his patients, Mandeville’s Treatise mirrors the digressive structure of a talking cure. Thanks to the soothing and enlightening effects of this casual conversation, the physician Mandeville demonstrates the healing power of words for a class of patients that he presents as men of learning who need above all to be addressed in their own language. Mandeville’s aim was to delineate his own cure for hypochondria and hysteria, which consisted of a talking cure followed by diet and exercise, but also to discuss the practice of medicine in England and continental Europe at a time when physicians were beginning to lose ground to apothecaries. Opposing a purely theoretical approach to medicine, Mandeville takes up the principles presented by Francis Bacon, Thomas Sydenham, and Giorgio Baglivi, and advocates a medical practice based on experience and backed up by time-tested theories.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kleiman-Lafon, Sylvie

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 18. Jahrhundert
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Geschichte der Psychologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Note on the Text.- Introduction.- Chapter 1. Mandeville’s 1711 preface.- Chapter 2. Mandeville’s 1730 preface.- Chapter 3. First dialogue.- Chapter 4. Second dialogue.- Chapter 5. Third dialogue.- Select bibliography.- Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon is assistant professor in English literature at the University of Paris VIII. A specialist of XVIIIth century British literature, she has mainly written on XVIIIth-century Scotland, British literature of the XVIIIth century, translation in England and France during the Enlightenment and the relationship between medicine and literature.