Psychology Revivals Illustrations of Madness John Haslam’s Illustrations of Madness, written in 1810, occupies a special place in psychiatric history, it was the first book-length account of one single psychiatric case written by a British psychiatrist. John Haslam, apothecary to London’s Bethlem Hospital, and a leading psy- chiatrist of the early-nineteenth century, details the case of James Tilly Matthews, who had been a patient in the hospital for some ten years. Matthews claimed he was sane, as did his friends and certain doctors. Haslam, on behalf of the Bethlem authorities, contended he was insane, and attempted to demonstrate this by presenting a detailed account of Matthew’s own delusional system, as far as possible in Matthew’s own words. Originally published in 1988 as part of the Tavistock Classics in the History of Psychiatry series, Roy Porter’s Introduction to this facsimile reprint of an historic book goes beyond Haslam’s text to reveal the extraordinary psychiatric politics surrounding Matthew’s confinement and the court case it produced, leading up to Haslam’s dismissal from his post. Still relevant today, Haslam’s account can be used as material upon which to base a modern diagnosis of Matthew’s disorder. TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk Illustrations of Madness John Haslam Edited with an introduction by Roy Porter Firstpublishedin1988 byRoutledge Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2014byRoutledge 27ChurchRoad,Hove,BN32FA SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada byRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©1988IntroductionbyRoyPorter All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now knownor hereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingand recording, orin any informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe publishers. Publisher’sNote Thepublisherhasgonetogreatlengthstoensurethequalityofthisreprintbut pointsoutthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalcopiesmaybeapparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondencefromthosetheyhavebeenunabletocontact. ALibraryofCongressrecordexistsunderISBN:0415006376 ISBN:978-0-415-71248-4(hbk) ISBN:978-1-315-88397-7(ebk) ILLUSTRATIONS OF MADNESS BY lOHN HASLAM Edited with an Introduction by Roy Porter First published 1988 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1988 Introduction by Roy Porter Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other me ans, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Haslam, John Illustrations of madness. 1. Medicine. Psychiatry - Case studies I. Title 11. Porter, Roy, 1946 - In. Series 616.89'09 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Haslam, John, 1764-1844. Illustrations of madnesslJohn Haslam; edited with an introduction by Roy Porter. p. cm. - (Tavistock classics in the history of psychiatry) Reprint. Originally published: London: Printed by G. Hayden. 1810. ISBN 0-415-00637-6 1. Mathews, James Tilly-Mental health. 2. Mentally ill-Great Britain-Biography. 3. Mental illness-Case studies. I. Porter, Roy, 1946- . 11. Title. III. Series. [DNLM: 1. Mathews, James Tilly. WM H349i 1810a] RC464.M379H371988 616.89---dc19 DNLM/DLC 88-18631 for Library of Congress CIP ISBN 0-415-00637-6 CONTENTS PREFACE VB Introduction by Roy Porter Xl Illustrations of Madness J by ohn Haslam 1 V TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk PREFACE The T avistock Classics in the History of Psychiatry series meets a considerable need amongst academics, practitioners, and all those who are more broadly inter es ted in the development of psychiatry. Psychiatry as a discipline has always paid considerable heed to its own founders, its history, and emergent traditions. It is one field in which the relevance of the past to the present does not diminish. There is a high professional awareness of the history of the subject, and many aspects of this are now benefiting from fruitful dialogue with the now rapidly expanding investigations of historians and historical sociologists. Yet two factors greatly hamper our grasp of psychiatry's past. On the one hand, a considerable number of the formative texts in the rise of psychiatry are exceedingly difficult to obtain, even from libraries. As a small discipline in earlier centuries, many of the major works were published only in small runs, and many, even of the classics, have never been reprinted at all. This present series aims to overcome this problem, by making available a selection of such key works. MostlY they are books originally published in the English language; in other cases where the originallanguage was, say, French or German, we are reprinting contemporary English translations; in a few cases, we hope to present entirely new translations of classic Continental work. On the other hand, in many instances little is commonly known of the life and ideas of the authors of these texts, and their works have never been subjected to thorough analyses. Our intention in this series is to follow the model of the now defunct Dawson series of psychiatric reprints, edited and introduced by Richard Hunter .. Vll