hallvi's review
4.0
A gorgeously published book that gives a good overview of the history of ideas surrounding the mentally ill and how to care for them ("care" is a rather blurry term here), from the Middle Ages until today. The images in the book are plenty and well picked; depicting things like mentally ill persons, treatments, the asylums, and art made by patients.
This book also has a rich list of further reading for those who want to dip deeper into the subject.
This book also has a rich list of further reading for those who want to dip deeper into the subject.
sarahjjs's review
4.0
This is extremely well put together. The artwork and architecture designs will spark everyone's interest. I think if you were to strip back the pictures (because they are huge and really do make up over half of the book) and resized the font then you would be looking at maybe 50 pages of text? Perhaps not even that so it does leave holes and skips quickly which I found difficult because I had to stop and google it and then search through resources to really understand what was happening at the time. I am reading mad in America now and devoured half of it last night and it is answering every single question this book left me with.
It does what it does well, but to understand the topic you do need to complement it with something more thorough. I would say it makes an excellent coffee table book but the pictures are a little bit off putting so maybe should only be offered to macabre friends.
It does what it does well, but to understand the topic you do need to complement it with something more thorough. I would say it makes an excellent coffee table book but the pictures are a little bit off putting so maybe should only be offered to macabre friends.
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