Madness in the Family: Women, Care, and Illness in Japan

ISBN-13: 9780197507353 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022 / 248 str.

H. Yumi Kim

Recenzje

This book delivers what its title promises and far more. In keeping with the title, Kim argues strongly that despite the introduction of European psychiatry into Japan in the 19th century and the subsequent construction of psychiatric institutions, care for mental illness remained the responsibility of family, with the burden of care falling primarily on women. Whereas earlier scholarship has analyzed expertise and institutions, Kim ventures into the 'rough ground of the ordinary.' Her four substantive chapters consider fox spirits, home confinement, hysteria, and how assumptions about women's reproductive functions could win women reduced sentences in courts of law... The book thus provides rich detail on both the ambitions of the Japanese state and the limits of its control over its subjects. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals.

O autorze

H. Yumi Kim is Assistant Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University.