I highly recommend Hanganu-Bresch and Berkenkotter’s work to anyone who is interested in the vicissitudes of early psychiatric diagnosis, confinement and treatment. The book is well written and well documented. The reader benefits form the authors’ admirable knowledge on the evolution of psychiatry in the 19th century, the social co-creation of the institution of asylum and the many genres of discourse (from admission reports to science fiction) that have shaped these developments. While the book offers but a snapshot of a more extended historical process, I believe there is a lot to learn from such a snapshot.

中文翻译：

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方法与疯狂

我向所有对早期精神病诊断、监禁和治疗的变迁感兴趣的人强烈推荐 Hanganu-Bresch 和 Berkenkotter 的工作。这本书写得很好，文档也很好。作者对 19 世纪精神病学的演变、庇护制度的社会共同创造以及塑造这些发展的多种话语类型（从录取报告到科幻小说）的令人钦佩的知识使读者受益匪浅。虽然这本书提供了一个更广泛的历史过程的快照，但我相信从这样的快照中可以学到很多东西。