Diane Miller Sommerville
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469643304
- eISBN:
- 9781469643588
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469643304.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Aberration of Mind is a social history of suicide in the American South during the Civil War era. The book casts a wide net, focusing on Confederate soldiers and veterans and their families, and the ...
More
Aberration of Mind is a social history of suicide in the American South during the Civil War era. The book casts a wide net, focusing on Confederate soldiers and veterans and their families, and the enslaved and newly freed. The central question is, how did the Civil War and the suffering it generated shape suicidal thoughts and behavior? The author seeks to understand how the suffering experienced by southerners living in a war zone contributed to psychological distress that, in extreme cases, led southerners to contemplate or act on suicidal thoughts. The unprecedented human toll the war took on southerners created a psychological crisis that has not been fully explored. Drawing on sources like letters, diaries, military service records, coroners’ reports, and asylum patient case histories, the work recovers myriad stories, previously hidden, of individuals exhibiting suicidal activity or aberrant psychological behavior linked to the war and its aftermath. In addition to expanding our understanding of the full human costs of the Civil War, the book concludes that southerners transformed the meaning of suicide from an act of cowardice to a heroic symbol of white southern identity. The book fills a neglected niche in an otherwise crowded field of Civil War scholarship – the psychological impact of war and defeat on southerners.Less
Aberration of Mind is a social history of suicide in the American South during the Civil War era. The book casts a wide net, focusing on Confederate soldiers and veterans and their families, and the enslaved and newly freed. The central question is, how did the Civil War and the suffering it generated shape suicidal thoughts and behavior? The author seeks to understand how the suffering experienced by southerners living in a war zone contributed to psychological distress that, in extreme cases, led southerners to contemplate or act on suicidal thoughts. The unprecedented human toll the war took on southerners created a psychological crisis that has not been fully explored. Drawing on sources like letters, diaries, military service records, coroners’ reports, and asylum patient case histories, the work recovers myriad stories, previously hidden, of individuals exhibiting suicidal activity or aberrant psychological behavior linked to the war and its aftermath. In addition to expanding our understanding of the full human costs of the Civil War, the book concludes that southerners transformed the meaning of suicide from an act of cowardice to a heroic symbol of white southern identity. The book fills a neglected niche in an otherwise crowded field of Civil War scholarship – the psychological impact of war and defeat on southerners.
Sudhir Kakar
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195696684
- eISBN:
- 9780199080304
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195696684.003.0008
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This essay examines the Hindu ideas of middle age in ancient and contemporary India, citing both ancient and modern texts such as the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as the Dharmashastras ...
More
This essay examines the Hindu ideas of middle age in ancient and contemporary India, citing both ancient and modern texts such as the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as the Dharmashastras and Sanskrit poetry, Hindi fiction and cinema, and popular sayings. These texts show that a person enters middle age when his role in family life changes, specifically, the marriage of the first child. The main psychological requirement of middle age is renunciation of the concerns of family life and of the outside world associated with adulthood. This culturally desired goal of withdrawal results in a psychological crisis which is represented in Sanskrit poetry in terms of the despair caused by renunciation of sexual life. Given certain vicissitudes of the female life cycle in India, women tend to cling stubbornly to the authority and power in the household when they reach middle age.Less
This essay examines the Hindu ideas of middle age in ancient and contemporary India, citing both ancient and modern texts such as the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as the Dharmashastras and Sanskrit poetry, Hindi fiction and cinema, and popular sayings. These texts show that a person enters middle age when his role in family life changes, specifically, the marriage of the first child. The main psychological requirement of middle age is renunciation of the concerns of family life and of the outside world associated with adulthood. This culturally desired goal of withdrawal results in a psychological crisis which is represented in Sanskrit poetry in terms of the despair caused by renunciation of sexual life. Given certain vicissitudes of the female life cycle in India, women tend to cling stubbornly to the authority and power in the household when they reach middle age.
