Description
The vital place of literature and the figure of the writer in Russian society and history have been extensively studied, but their role in the evolution of psychiatry is less well known. In Diagnosing Literary Genius: A Cultural History of Psychiatry in Russia, 1880-1930, Irina Sirotkina explores the transformations of Russian psychiatric practice through its relationship to literature. During this period, psychiatrists began to view literature as both an indicator of the nation's mental health and an integral part of its well-being. By aligning themselves with writers, psychiatrists argued that the aim of their science was not dissimilar to the literary project of exploring the human soul and reflecting on the psychological ailments of the age. Through the writing of pathographies (medical biographies), psychiatrists strengthened their social standing, debated political issues under the guise of literary criticism, and asserted moral as well as professional claims. By examining the psychiatric engagement with the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and the decadents and revolutionaries, Sirotkina provides a rich account of Russia's medical and literary history during this turbulent revolutionary period.
Sirotkina presents a comprehensive overview of the various approaches to madness found from the end of the Imperial period through to the establishment of Stalinist hegemony. Her approach is unique; her material quite exhaustive; and her insights, into the history of medicine, history of literature, and the cultural history of Russia, extraordinary. -- Sander L. Gilman, University of Illinois at Chicago Irina Sirotkina has written a fascinating history of the evolution of the profession of psychiatry in Russia between the 1880s and 1930 by focusing on the borderland where medicine and literature intersect. Examining the psychiatric pathographies of Russia's most celebrated writers, the author offers a new interpretation of Russian intellectual history in the transitional era before and after the revolution. -- Martin A. Miller, Duke University As Irina Sirotkina points out, the Russian intelligentsia has always granted an exalted role to literature and literati. By exploring Russian psychiatrists' changing diagnoses of the country's most famous literary figures-particularly Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy-she offers an engaging and instructive look at their changing ideas about mental illness, genius, and creativity, and embeds those ideas convincingly in Russia's turbulent social, political, and cultural history from the mid-nineteenth century through the early years of Soviet rule. -- Daniel P. Todes, The Johns Hopkins University
About the Author
Irina Sirotkina is a research fellow at the Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
Reviews
Irina Sirotkina gives a fascinating account of the growth of psychiatry in Russia through the prism of literature. -- Anne Garside Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease [Sirotkina] has a deep interest in her subject, and she offers a mine of information and commentary about the linked histories of psychiatry and literature in Russia (and in the post-1917 Russian emigre community). The results of her archival research are most rewarding for anyone interested in the history of Russian psychiatry. -- Daniel Rancour-Laferriere Times Literary Supplement In this absorbing work of exemplary scholarship, Irina Sirotkina... convincingly correlates trends in the theory and practice of Russian psychotherapy, during the fifty-year period studied, with changing developments in sociopolitical thought. -- Martin Bidney Slavic Review A worthy and cleverly constructed attempt to redress the excesses of casting psychiatry as a self-interested body. -- Ben Mayhew Medical History 2004 A valuable contribution to our understanding of the history of Russian psychiatry. -- Laura Goering Journal of the History of Medicine 2004 An interesting and respectable history of a critical time in Russia's history. -- Cary Federman European Legacy
Awards
Winner of MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures 2004 (United States).
Book Information
ISBN 9780801867828
Author Irina Sirotkina
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm
Sirotkina presents a comprehensive overview of the various approaches to madness found from the end of the Imperial period through to the establishment of Stalinist hegemony. Her approach is unique; her material quite exhaustive; and her insights, into the history of medicine, history of literature, and the cultural history of Russia, extraordinary. -- Sander L. Gilman, University of Illinois at Chicago Irina Sirotkina has written a fascinating history of the evolution of the profession of psychiatry in Russia between the 1880s and 1930 by focusing on the borderland where medicine and literature intersect. Examining the psychiatric pathographies of Russia's most celebrated writers, the author offers a new interpretation of Russian intellectual history in the transitional era before and after the revolution. -- Martin A. Miller, Duke University As Irina Sirotkina points out, the Russian intelligentsia has always granted an exalted role to literature and literati. By exploring Russian psychiatrists' changing diagnoses of the country's most famous literary figures-particularly Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy-she offers an engaging and instructive look at their changing ideas about mental illness, genius, and creativity, and embeds those ideas convincingly in Russia's turbulent social, political, and cultural history from the mid-nineteenth century through the early years of Soviet rule. -- Daniel P. Todes, The Johns Hopkins University
About the Author
Irina Sirotkina is a research fellow at the Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
Reviews
Irina Sirotkina gives a fascinating account of the growth of psychiatry in Russia through the prism of literature. -- Anne Garside Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease [Sirotkina] has a deep interest in her subject, and she offers a mine of information and commentary about the linked histories of psychiatry and literature in Russia (and in the post-1917 Russian emigre community). The results of her archival research are most rewarding for anyone interested in the history of Russian psychiatry. -- Daniel Rancour-Laferriere Times Literary Supplement In this absorbing work of exemplary scholarship, Irina Sirotkina... convincingly correlates trends in the theory and practice of Russian psychotherapy, during the fifty-year period studied, with changing developments in sociopolitical thought. -- Martin Bidney Slavic Review A worthy and cleverly constructed attempt to redress the excesses of casting psychiatry as a self-interested body. -- Ben Mayhew Medical History 2004 A valuable contribution to our understanding of the history of Russian psychiatry. -- Laura Goering Journal of the History of Medicine 2004 An interesting and respectable history of a critical time in Russia's history. -- Cary Federman European Legacy
Awards
Winner of MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures 2004 (United States).
Book Information
ISBN 9780801867828
Author Irina Sirotkina
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm
