Madness: A Brief History (Fall Course)

Wagner Free Institute of Science

FALL COURSE: HISTORY OF SCIENCE SERIES  - Free course with Darin Hayton at the Parkway Central Library

Parkway Central Library

Evening Courses

The Wagner's evening courses are the oldest, free adult education program in the country! Courses are ordinarily held off-site at a variety of locations in Philly to make them accessible to a wide audience. Since 2020, they have been held over Zoom.

<h2>WAGNER FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE – FALL 2023 COURSE: HISTORY OF SCIENCE SERIES</h2><h2>Madness: A Brief History with Professor Darin Hayton</h2>6﻿ Tuesdays from October 17 - November 21, 6:30 - 8:00 PMLocation: This course meets at the Parkway Central Library, located at 1901 Vine St., PhiladelphiaThis course requires pre-registration. Separate registration is required for each student. Sign up here or call 215-763-6529 x14 for assistance. <h2>Course Description</h2>The concept of madness presents a challenge. What sorts of perceived deviant behavior indicated that a person was mad? How have societies understood the assumed underlying conditions that caused that behavior? How have societies responded to — tried to control or treat or help or ostracize — those thought to be mad? This course will examine some of the ways past societies identified, explained, and reacted to behavior they considered deviant and evidence of madness. It will focus on how madness has been defined and viewed from antiquity through the 19th century in Europe and North America.<h2>Course Schedule</h2>1. Tuesday, October 17, 2023 – Madness in Antiquity In antiquity and the middle ages, madness and mania were often considered (and treated) as physical and metaphysical conditions. Human behavior, the expression of passions and rationality, had both somatic and spiritual origins. Madness also had moral and social implications, especially after the rise of Christianity. The mad become the object of ridicule and the source of fear.2. Tuesday, October 24, 2023 – Melancholy In early modern Europe madness increasingly became linked to melancholy, at once a condition and a source. The emphasis on melancholy established a physical, material basis for madness. During the religious and social uncertainty of the 16th ad 17th century, melancholy offered physicians and scholars a robust and nuanced framework for explaining unusual or disturbing behaviors.3. Tuesday, October 31, 2023 – Asylums By the later 15th century local magistrates had begun confining the mad to specific institutions, both for their own sake but also, and perhaps more urgently, for the safety of society. The practice of confining the mad increased over the next few centuries, creating new and purpose-built institutions. With the development of these institutions came new questions about the nature and possible treatment of madness.4. Tuesday, November 7, 2023 – The Friends' Asylum in Philadelphia On May 20, 1817 the Friends’ Asylum admitted its first patient, a 48-year-old female who had suffered from a “melancholy cast” for 11 years. The asylum embodied a new, Quaker understanding of insanity and their innovative approach to curing people suffering from various forms of madness. The Friends’ Asylum was the first private mental hospital in the United States (and continues to this day in its original location on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia).5. Tuesday, November 14, 2023 – Seeing Madness Physicians, reformers and artists have long thought that madness must leave visible traces on the surfaces of those suffering from it. In the 18th and 19th centuries the urge to classify shaped the ways people saw and categorized madness. Photographic possibilities facilitated these taxonomic projects.6. Tuesday, November 21, 2023 – Architecture of Madness The architecture of the asylum became an object of therapeutic concern in the 19th century, especially in light of evolving ideas about the source and treatment of madness. Reacting to concerns that earlier efforts to confine the mad were both inhumane and exacerbating the patients’ sufferings, 19th-century asylum designers imagined entirely new spaces for housing the insane.<aside></aside><h2>Suggested Reading</h2>Selected readings for each week will be available for download online.The following general histories are recommended:•	M. Foucault, Madness and Civilization (Vintage, 1988)•	E. Mellyn, Mad Tuscans and Their Families (Penn, 2014)•	E. Midelfort, Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany (Virginia, 1994)•	R. Porter, Madness. A Brief History (Oxford, 2002)•	A. Scull, Madness in Civilization (Princeton, 2015)•	N. Tomes, Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen (Penn, 1981)<aside></aside><h2>About the Professor</h2>Dr. Darin Hayton is a historian of science whose research focuses on the creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge, especially the science of the stars (astrology and astronomy) in pre-Modern Europe and the late Byzantine Empire. He is Associate Professor of the history of science in the History Department at Haverford College and Chair of the Editorial Board of Lever Press, an innovative Open Access scholarly press. He has published a book, The Crown and the Cosmos. Astrology and the Politics of Maximilian I, and more recently an article on the local Friends’ Asylum (“The Inmate’s Window”). He has taught for the Wagner since 2016.<h2>FAQs</h2>What is the cost?Wagner courses are free; donations are encouraged! Are there minimum age requirements to enter the course?The adult lecture courses are offered on an introductory college level. They are open to anyone seeking an introduction to various areas of the sciences as well as those familiar with the subjects who wish to broaden and update their knowledge. The courses also provide an excellent opportunity for motivated junior high and high school students to supplement their current science courses and to help prepare them for further study in these fields at a college level. The courses are appropriate as well for teachers seeking to expand their knowledge.What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the course?The Free Library of Philadelphia <a href="https://libwww.freelibrary.org/locations/parkway-central-library" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Parkway Central Branch</a> is located between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway. It is close to many SEPTA lines, including buses, Regional Rail, and the Broad Street Line Race/Vine station. Most parking near the library is metered street parking. There is also a Philadelphia Parking Authority lot behind the library on Callowhill Street between 19th and 20th Streets.Is the building wheelchair accessible?Yes. The Wood Street entrance (at the back of the building) is wheelchair accessible and there are elevators in the building. Enter Wood Street by going south on 19th Street and drive west towards 20th Street. If the gate is down press the buzzer and security will open the gate. There are handicapped parking places right next to the building.How can I contact the organizer with any questions?Click the "Contact the Organizer" link, email communications@wagnerfreeinstitute.org, or call 215-763-6529 x14. <aside>Images: Top: Hogarth- The Rake's Progress, the Madhouse</aside><aside>B﻿ottom: Hieronymus - Bosch, Removing the Stone of Folly</aside>