Seminar in the History of Anglo-American Culture
History 315: Illness and Healing in America
Fall 2003

Do Americans focus too much on the self, its defects and well-being? What do we mean when we say this? This course looks at the roots of the therapeutic ethic in religious ideas and institutions. We wil inquire into the history and changing meanings of illnesses such as insanity, eating disorders and ‘nervousness, the rise and impact of the medical and helping professions such as social work, and the role played by psychology in modern conceptions of the self.

Required Books, available on reserve at Cochran Library and at the Bookstore

Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic, with a New Preface, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987 [1966])
Sheila Rothman, Living in the Shadow of Death: Tuberculosis
Alison Winter, Mesmerized
Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995, reprinted 1998).
Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa, (New York: Vintage, 2000 [1987])
T. M. Lurhman, Of Two Minds.
Elaine Showalter, Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)

GRADES will be assigned in this manner: Class participation, 25%. Each of two 3 page essays: 10%. Research proposal/bibliography and revision 20%. Final research essay, 40%. To pass this course, all written assignments must be received by 4 p.m. Wednesday of exam week (December 13). That’s right—if you neglect to turn in a written assignment, you will fail the course.

Definition of a seminar: participation is key. Missing more than one session will reduce your partipation grade by one whole letter grade for each class missed.

SKILLS YOU WILL LEARN: How to distinguish a primary historical document from a secondary historical interpretation, how to read documents and understand them in relation to a broader historical context; how to craft a written historical argument based on evidence; how and when to use footnotes; how to conduct historical research and write a long paper based on your research,

Schedule of Classes, Readings, and Assignments

Week 1 (Aug. 27): Introduction to the Course
Rieff, Triumph of the Therapeutic, Introductory, ch. 1.

Week 2 (Sept 3): American Suffering I: Religious Roots

John Owen King, excerpts from ch. 1, The Iron of Melancholy (1983)
Excerpts from The Diary of Michael Wigglesworth, 1637-1657
Jonathan Edwards, "Narrative of Surprising Conversions,' (1735) [packet]

Week 3 (Sept 10): Bodily Woe: Understanding Illness in 18th century Anglo-America

Tobias Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (1775), pp. 5-42 [Volume on reserve]
Roy Porter, Health for Sale: Quackery in England, 1600-1850. Manchester, UK: Manchester UP, 1989, Intro. ch. 1
William Byrd, Diary (1607-1610 [excerpts]

Week 4 (Sept 17, 19): The Clinical Gaze

Michel Foucault, Birth of the Clinic, Preface, ch. 7 (first five pages) and ch. 8. [on reserve]
Lauren Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale, chs. 1 and 7 [on reserve]
Sheila Rothman, Living in the Shadow of Death, Introduction; chs. 1-4.

Week 5 (Sept. 24): Women, Power, and Illness

Brumberg, Fasting Girls, Introduction, chs. 2 through 7.
Rothman, Living in the Shadow of Death, chs. 5-8

Salem Witchcraft Trial Documents [packet]

Showalter, Hystories, chs. 1 & 2

BRING FIRSTSEARCH (WORLDCAT) LIST OF POSSIBLE SOURCES TO CLASS

Week 6 (Oct. 1): Mind over Body I

Alison Winter, Mesmerized, introduction, chs. 1-5, 7

BRING America History and Life list of possible sources to class

Week 7 (Oct 8): Mind over Body II

Alison Winter, Mesmerized, 9-12
William James, chs. The Varieties of Religious Experience, chs. 4-8 [on reserve]

Due on Friday, October, 10: 3 page paper on topic TBA

Week 8 (Oct 15): Body over Mind

George Beard, American Nervousness (exceprts in packet)
Rothman, Living in the Shadow, chs. 9-11

Brumberg, Fasting Girls, chs. 1, 8, 9

Showalter, Hystories, chs. 3, 5, 6, 8 & 9

Due on Friday, October, 19, Draft of Research Proposal and Bibliography

Week 9 (Oct 22,): Consumer Culture and the Modern Imperial Self

Warren Susman, ÒCulture and Personality,Ó [packet]

T. J. Jackson Lears, ÒFrom Salvation to Self-Realization,Ó in Fox and Jackson, The Culture of Consumption, 1983, [on reserve]

Philip Rieff,

Week 10 (Oct. 29): Modern Therapeutic Movements

Hacking, Rewriting the Soul, chs. 1-8
Showalter, Hystories, chs. 10 & 11

Week 11 (Nov 5): History of Psychiatry

Luhrmann, Of Two Minds, Introduction, chs. 1-5
Hacking, Rewriting the Soul, chs. 9-14

Due on Friday, November 7, Revised Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography

Week 12 (Nov 12): Oral Presentation of Paper Topics

Week 13 (Nov. 19): Work on Papers

Draft of Research Paper due November 21, at 5 p.m; It will be returned to you with comments on Monday, November 29


Week 14 (Dec 1): Work on Research Papers

Research Essays DUE DECEMBER 10, Wed. at 4 p. m. in my mailbox in Benedict, on the first floor. Madness,