HIST*4200*01: Health, Mind, and Body

Term: Fall 2025

Course Synopsis:

This course examines the history of medical efforts to understand the relations between mind, brain, and body, from the late nineteenth century to the present. Focusing primarily on the American context, we will examine the social and institutional dimensions of attempts to both understand and treat individuals suffering from mental illness as well as efforts to morally regulate minds and bodies. We will approach our subject from the perspective of several historical actors, including scientists, clinicians, patients, and critics. Wherever possible, we will pay attention to the effects of social and cultural context on how individual minds and brains have been constructed, explained, and treated. Topics will include asylum culture, patient history, race, women, hysteria, World War I and shell shock, eugenics, sexuality, psychoanalysis, pharmacology, mad studies, and deinstitutionalization.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

1. Discuss and analyse various approaches to madness and mental illness since the 19^th century, and the reasons for the prominence of certain approaches according to historical context and social setting;
2. Understand the disciplinary relations between the sciences of mind and brain since the 19^th century;
3. Understand the status of psychiatry as a discipline and medical specialty and how and why its status has changed over time;
4. Critically evaluate and discuss scholarly work in the history of medicine and other relevant scholarly fields, through the process of seminar presentations and discussions;
5. Effectively use both primary and secondary historical sources in making an historical argument and presenting that argument clearly in written form;
6. Develop skills in oral presentation of research and the process of scholarly inquiry;
7. Collaborate with peers in giving and receiving critical feedback on research and written work.

Prerequisites:

None.

Method of Delivery:

Two 80-minute seminars per week.

Methods of Evaluation and Weights:

Seminar Presentations                        (2 x 10% each)                                         20%

Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography                                                 10%

Research Presentation                                                                                        10%

Peer Review                                                                                                        5%

Research Essay                                                                                                  35%

Seminar Participation                                                                                          20%

Required Readings:

A set of online readings available through Ares.