Why read Mad-Doctors in the Dock?

Book cover of Mad-Doctors in the Dock: Defending the Diagnosis, 1760-1913

Book description

Shortly before she pushed her infant daughter headfirst into a bucket of water and fastened the lid, Annie Cherry warmed the pail because, as she later explained to a police officer, "It would have been cruel to put her in cold water." Afterwards, this mother sat down and poured herself…

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Topics

London

Genres

European history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Mad-Doctors in the Dock as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Katherine D. Watson

Author

Based on the authentic voices of doctors, prisoners and legal personnel who appeared at London’s central criminal court, the Old Bailey, the book charts the development of forensic psychiatry as a field of medical expertise. Terms like melancholia, mania and delusion were so adaptable that they could be used to account for apparently motiveless crimes, including murder. Judges, juries, doctors and lawyers focused on establishing what a prisoner knew they were doing and would likely have believed about the outcome of the act, revealing the medico-legal foundations of the modern insanity defense.

From Katherine's list on The best books on the history of forensic medicine.