A Textbook of Madness

by Charles Mercier (Author), Graeme Newman (Author)

What is madness? How does reason fail? When does unusual behavior become mental illness? And what responsibilities do society, medicine, and the law have toward those whose minds are disordered?

Originally published in the early twentieth century, Charles Mercier's A Textbook of Madness and Other Mental Diseases is one of the most influential and intellectually ambitious works in the history of psychiatry. A pioneering psychiatrist and leading authority on insanity, Mercier sought to do more than describe mental illness—he attempted to explain its nature, causes, classification, and relationship to human conduct.

Rejecting the conventional view that insanity is simply a disorder of thought, Mercier argued that madness is fundamentally a disorder of conduct. Through careful observation and analysis, he developed a comprehensive theory linking desire, will, feeling, thought, and memory to the ways individuals function in society. His groundbreaking hierarchical model of the mind anticipated many modern concerns with judgment, self-control, insight, and behavioral regulation.

This new edition features an extensive introduction by renowned criminologist Graeme R. Newman, placing Mercier's work within the context of modern psychiatry, psychology, criminology, neuroscience, and forensic mental health. Newman explores the enduring relevance of Mercier's ideas and their continuing influence on debates surrounding mental illness, criminal responsibility, social control, and human behavior.

Inside this volume, readers will discover:

• Mercier's pioneering definition of insanity as a disorder of conduct

• A detailed hierarchical theory of mental functioning

• Early classifications of mental illness and their historical development

• Analyses of delusions, hallucinations, dementia, paranoia, mania, and melancholia

• Discussions of crime, punishment, and criminal responsibility

• The legal treatment of insanity in Britain during the early twentieth century

• Insights into the social, biological, and psychological causes of mental disorder

• A scholarly introduction connecting Mercier's theories to contemporary research

Part historical document, part psychiatric treatise, and part philosophical inquiry into the nature of human behavior, A Textbook of Madness and Other Mental Diseases remains an essential work for students and scholars of psychiatry, psychology, criminology, law, sociology, and the history of medicine.

More than a century after its first publication, Mercier's enduring questions continue to resonate: What is sanity? What is madness? And how should society respond when the boundaries between them become uncertain?

An indispensable classic of psychiatric thought, now available in a modern scholarly edition.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 218p.