As indicated by its title A History of Great Ideas in Abnormal Psychology, this book is not just concerned with the chronology of events or with biographical details of great psychiatrists and psychopathologists. It has as its main interest, a study of the ideas underlying theories about mental illness and mental health in the Western world. These are studied according to their historical development from ancient times to the twentieth century.

The book discusses the history of ideas about the nature of mental illness, its causation, its treatment and also social attitudes...