Knochenmark und Stammzelle, Der Kampf um die Grundlagen der Hämatologie

Aphrodite of Knidos, which identified the reproductive organs as her "region of insanity" (Fig. 2.76, p. 108). Over-generalizations and the odd inconsistency are inevitable in a book that ranges so far, and many minor criticisms might be made of some of the authors' arguments, which they often lack space to fully substantiate (e.g., the assertion that the Enlightenment placed new emphasis on individual responsibility for health, but was also defined by its "faith in institutions to cure society", p. 20; or that "interest in ... heredity as a factor in mental illness was prompted in part by a growing disenchantment with asylum medicine", p. 121). Sometimes the choice of images might also be questioned, whether on grounds of representativeness, relevance or repetition, as with the three illustrations from the American Shakespeare (Figs 2.2-3 and 2.41-43, pp. 39-40 and 78-9) and three photographs of nurses exercising at Pennsylvania Hospital. (See also, Figs 2.14, 2.16 and 2.63, pp. 51, 53 and 97). There is an overwhelming predominance in the first two sections of references to source material from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. More major failings are to be found in the frequently uncomfortable merging of art historical and historical approaches. The authors fall too often, perhaps, away from their central subject-cultural shifts in conceptions of madness-into rather tenuous discussions of social history and art history, as in their accounts of neo-classical and romantic painting and slavery (e.g., pp. 19, 97 and 100-3). It is also remarkable that there is no discussion of contemporary theories of perception, such as the sensationalist approach to human psychology, that were so important in shaping how mental processes and the mentally ill themselves were seen. While the jacket blurb claims that views of the mentally ill and their families themselves are addressed, in fact the book's focus is overwhelmingly on medical, artistic and educated perspectives.