A history of delusions : the glass king, a substitute husband and a walking corpse

A history of delusions The glass king, a substitute husband and a walking corpse

Victoria Shepherd

Book - 2022

Why would someone wake up and claim they're Napoleon? Or believe they have been turned into a wolf and demand to be fed raw meat? For centuries, we've dismissed delusions as a problem for the shrinks to sort out in distant asylums. But delusions are more than just bizarre case studies - they tell stories of collective anxieties and traumas. In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd explores delusions from ancient times to present and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness. Isn't it perfectly understandable to believe you've got the wrong head when the guillotine takes the heads of hundreds every day? Who cannot sympathize with the man who believes he is already dead, when all his comrades died in the ...battlefields? We all have it in us to become delusional. In understanding delusions, we come closer to understanding ourselves.

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Subjects
Delusions > History.
Cognition disorders > History.
Informational works.
Genres
Informational works
Published
London : Oneworld 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Victoria Shepherd (author)
Physical Description
xiv, 338 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-312) and index.
ISBN
9780861540914
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • i. 'Madame M' and 'The Illusion of Doubles'
  • ii. A Paranoid Conspiracy: James Tilly Matthews and the 'Air Loom Gang'
  • iii. The Melancholic Delusions of Robert Burton
  • iv. Francis Spira and the 'Delusion of Despair'
  • v. The Glass Delusion of King Charles VI of France
  • vi. Margaret Nicholson, Descended from Boudicca and Rightful Queen of England
  • vii. The Clockmaker Who Lost His Head
  • viii. Napoleon and 'Delusions of Grandeur'
  • ix. 'Madame X', Professor Cotard and 'Walking Corpse Syndrome'
  • x. 'Léa-Anna B' and the King: Grand Passions and 'Erotomania'
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Select Bibliography
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this bewitching debut, Shepherd adapts her BBC Radio 4 series of the same name, providing a delightfully strange account of delusions. Through a series of case studies spanning the Middle Ages to the present day, Shepherd contends that "cases of delusion often have the quality of a parable or fairy tale.... They are peculiar, cryptic, their meanings encoded." She discusses the French "Madame M," who in 1918 requested a divorce because she thought her husband had been replaced by imposters, and Shepherd points to the stigma around divorce as a possible subliminal motive. An exquisite chapter tells the story of the 17th-century psychological theorist Robert Burton, who so trusted a horoscope he had personally calculated that he allegedly committed suicide to accord with its prophecy of his death. Other cases include King Charles VI of France, who believed that his body had been transformed into glass, and a French Revolution--era clockmaker who claimed his head had been severed by a guillotine. Reminiscent of Oliver Sachs, Shepherd opts for empathy over prurience, highlighting the humanity of her subjects and lucidly drawing out the dream logic by which their delusions operate. This is a wondrous reminder of the intricacy and paradox of the human mind. (July)

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