The Transformation of the Psyche in British Primary Care, 1870-1970

Description

Conflicting models of selfhood have become central to debates over modern medicine. Yet we still lack a clear historical account of how this psychological sensibility came to be established. The Transformation of the Psyche in British Primary Care, 1880-1970 will remedy this situation by demonstrating that there is nothing inevitable about the current connection between health, identity and personal history. It traces the changing conception of the psyche in Britain over the last two centuries and it demonstrates how these changes were rooted in transformed patterns of medical care. The shifts from private medicine through to National Insurance and the National Health Service fostered different kinds of relationship between doctor and patient and different understandings of psychological distress. The Transformation of the Psyche in British Primary Care, 1880-1970 examines these transformations and, in so doing, provides new critical insights into our modern sense of identity and changing notions of health that will be of great value to anyone interested in the modern history of British medicine.

Rhodri Hayward is Wellcome Award Lecturer in the History of Medicine at Queen Mary, University of London, UK.

I know of very few histories that have explored the rise and fall of culturally and politically salient techniques and knowledge from the view of non-elite medical practitioners. By doing so, The Transformation of the Psyche in British Primary Care, 1880-1970 emerges as an important model for future studies in the social history of general practice. It is a great pleasure to read as well. -- Stephen Casper, Clarksofn University * Social History of Medicine, vol 28, no 1 *