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
Fighting racism in postwar Britain
Horror films: a chilling cultural history
The history of Jamaica: everything you wanted to know
Killers of the Flower Moon: The real history
The First Crusade | 3. Crossing into the unknown
Disease killers: the black nurses who conquered TB
Who moulded Winston Churchill?
The Second Barons’ War: everything you wanted to know
Renaissance eugenics
The First Crusade | 2. On the road
1960s Britain: smashing the status quo?
Life of the week Trailer
Disney at 100
Weimar Germany: everything you wanted to know
Slave traders: the men who built a brutal empire
The First Crusade Trailer
The First Crusade | 1. The call to arms
Re-examining women in the Roman empire
History Behind the Headlines Trailer
Is black history still being overlooked?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Dan Snow’s History Hit
Front Row
Not Just the Tudors
The Ancients
Gone Medieval