Narratives of Female Madness Exploring how narratives of female madness in the 19th and early 20th centuries reflect the evolution of psychiatry and perception of sanity C.L. Whittingham Medicalmuseumblog.wordpress.com

“My brain hums with scraps of poetry and madness” Virginia Woolf, selected letters

“Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female” Simone de Beauvoir

“If I didn't think, I'd be much happier; if I didn't have any sex organs, I wouldn't waver on the brink of nervous emotion and tears all the time. ” Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“I have no objection to anyone’s sex life as long as they don’t practice it in the street and frighten the horses” Oscar Wilde

“Much Madness is divinest Sense –To a discerning Eye –Much Sense - the starkest Madness … Assent - and you are sane –Demur - you’re straightway dangerous –And handled with a Chain –“ Emily Dickinson, The Poems of Emily Dickinson

"And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him" The Holy Bible

References for artwork John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851, Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons)  Charles West Cope, Mother and Child, 1852, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Louis Lang, The Invalid, 1870, Brooklyn Museum, Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons) Kate Beaton, Hark a Vagrant 292, @:http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=292 André Brouillet, Une lecon clinique a la Salpetriere, 1887, Descartes University Paris, Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons)  Page 295 Case book: arranged alphabetically by surname (not duplicate) St Luke’s hospital, 1916, Wellcome Library archives Richard Redgrave, The Outcast, 1851, VictorianWeb, Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons) William Hogarth, In the madhouse – a Rake’s progress, 1732-1735, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons) Tony Robert-Fleury, Philippe Pinel a la Salpetriere, 1795, Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons)