Melancholia and the Problem of Retrospective Diagnosis: Post-Conference Thoughts

Dr Åsa Jansson recently completed her PhD at the Centre for the History of the Emotions at Queen Mary University of London. Her thesis mapped the re-conceptualisation of melancholia as a modern biomedical mental disease in Victorian medicine. In this blog … Continue reading

Psychological Pain and Suicidality – Some Historical Considerations

Pain is a sensation – and a topic – that has recently attracted much attention among historians, particularly those working in the field of the history of emotions. This post interrogates perceptions of mental pain that link this feeling to … Continue reading

Hypochondriac disease – in the mind, the guts, or the soul?

By Yasmin Haskell (Chief Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions: Europe 1100-1800 at University of Western Australia) This post was first published on The Conversation in their Medical Histories series, recounting curious stories from the history of medicine. … Continue reading