The literature of the past has included self-reports by the mentally ill since before Roy Porter reminded us that their views and experiences constitute an important document for historians of psychiatry. The value of these self-reports can be enhanced if their potential biases and informational power are duly determined. This Classic Text concerns a self-report of a form of periodic madness written by an eighteenth-century Danish vicar. It shows how the same document can be presented in a more or less neutral fashion by a medical historian (Maar) or used as ‘evidence’ for some ‘ontological’ view of madness by a clinician (Rasmussen).
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de MezaST (1779) De febribus. In: Compendium medicum practicum, Vol. I. Copenhagen: C. G. Proft, 36–39.
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MaarV (ed.) (1925) C. S. Andresen: Min Sindssygdom I Aaret 1783, with preface and notes by Maar. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
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MichaudLG (1843) F. L. Bang. In: Biographie Universelle, Vol. 3. Paris: A Thoisnier Desplaces, 9.
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MichaudLG (n.d.) S. T. de Meza. In: Biographie Universelle, Vol. 28. Paris: Madame Desplaces, 176.
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17.
RasmussenS (2003) Min sindssygdom i året 1783. In: Dansk Medicinhistorisk Årbog. Copenhagen: Dansk Medicinhistorisk Selskab, 13–27.
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