Born in Vienna in 1864, Bernard Hollander was a London-based psychiatrist. He is best known for being one of the main proponents of phrenology. This title, originally published in 1916, looks at ‘the numerous nervous illnesses of women, in which the mental factor plays a large part, and which are known as functional disorders, as distinguished from organic diseases’. He looks at the role of psychotherapy as an emerging treatment for these disorders. There is also a companion volume which looks at the Nervous Disorders of Men.

Born in Vienna in 1864, Bernard Hollander was a London-based psychiatrist. He is best known for being one of the main proponents of phrenology. This title, originally published in 1916, looks at ‘the numerous nervous illnesses of men, in which the mental factor plays a large part, and which are known as functional disorders, to distinguish them from organic diseases’. He looks at the role of psychotherapy as an emerging treatment for these disorders. There is also a companion volume which looks at the Nervous Disorders of Women.

Originally published in 1991 as part of the Tavistock Classics in the History of Psychiatry series, this re-edition of J-M. Charcot’s Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System provides a unique opportunity to examine the work of one of the last century’s most controversial and admired physicians. Widely esteemed for his work in neuropathology, Charcot was also an innovator in the study of hysteria, making important contributions to its study in both women and men. The Clinical Lectures reproduced here are especially important for two key reasons. First, they provide insight into Charcot’s often neglected study of male hysteria, especially traumatic shock, as well as, hysteria among children. Secondly, they give an opportunity to examine his clinical method and style. His presentations and scholarly compilations greatly influenced an entire generation of French and other physicians interested in the study of the ‘unconscious’ during the turn of the century. The introduction, which precedes the work, places the volume in its social, political and historical context. It highlights the key features of the historiographical debate surrounding Charcot, which ranges in scope from the social and intellectual history of the Third Republic through that of early psychoanalysis. It then proceeds with an examination of the key themes – both substantive and methodological – underlying Charcot’s researches, providing both a general entrée into the history of medicine and society in this period, as well as an explication du texte which carefully analyses the lectures themselves.

‘Nerves’ became a highly eligible illness in early Georgian London and Bath. What Freud was for Vienna at the end of the nineteenth-century, George Cheyne was for eighteenth-century fashionable ailments. The English Malady was one of the best known and most influential books of the Georgian age, dealing with what we would now call psychiatric disorders. Such disorders, he contended, should be regarded as diseases of ‘civilization’ and the product of the pressures and affluence of modern life. By making ‘neurosis’ acceptable, even fashionable, Cheyne’s book assumed considerably wider significance during the Enlightenment. Prefaced by a scholarly introduction by Roy Porter, this reprint edition, originally published in 1991 as part of the Tavistock Classics in the History of Psychiatry series, places Cheyne and his work in the development of British psychiatry.

With the emphasis in the 1980s on effectiveness and efficiency in health services, evaluation of practice was increasingly important. This was particularly true of mental health, where many practices were poorly evaluated and therefore might have been of questionable validity. Originally published in 1987, this book reviews the state of evaluative research of mental health programmes at the time, showing how practices can be evaluated and hence improved. A multidisciplinary group of authors, covering psychiatry, clinical psychology, psychiatric nursing, social work and other ‘therapies’, describe previous studies and applications in each discipline, before detailing a case study of their own evaluative work. The book will still have something to offer all professionals concerned with improving the quality of their work in the mental health area.