The birth of psychiatry in the early-19th century changed the way that 'madness' was understood, with beliefs in the supernatural becoming evidence of insanity. Charlotte Hodgman spoke to Professor Owen Davies about the men and women who found themselves placed in asylums as a result of their supernatural beliefs, and investigates how old beliefs clashed with new ideas in a rapidly changing world.
(Ad) Owen Davies is the author of Troubled by Faith: Insanity and the Supernatural in the Age of the Asylum (Oxford University Press, 2023). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Ftroubled-by-faith%2Fowen-davies%2F9780198873006
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Britain's long love affair with sport
The Silk Road: everything you wanted to know
The Renaissance: an explosion of creativity
Conspiracy | 1. Was Elizabeth I a man?
Conspiracy | Series 2 Trailer
From the Mongols to the Huns: the nomads who dominated Eurasia
Life of the Week: Frederick Douglass
The hidden history of women in intelligence
The Bloomsbury Group: everything you wanted to know
Boston Tea Party | 5. A complex legacy
Why were the Romantics obsessed with Mount Vesuvius?
Life of the Week: Stalin
James Longstreet: Confederate Judas
Medieval popes: everything you wanted to know
A history of song: from Schumann to Sting
Boston Tea Party | 4. The crackdown
Aztec warfare
History Behind the Headlines: Elections, ‘panda diplomacy’ and the word of the year
How spies shaped the modern world
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Gone Medieval
Dan Snow’s History Hit
Not Just the Tudors
American History Hit
Empire