From the Publisher
"Hugely impressive and absorbing" — Anna Maria Barry, BBC History Magazine
"Davies's achievement is to have written a sort of counter-history to the kinds of early 19th-century histories of witchcraft with which his narrative opens. He eschews the retrospective diagnoses of the early psychiatrists and instead places individual experiences in the broader context of social and cultural change...He has assembled an extraordinary trove of snapshots of individual lives, and he treats them with sympathy and sensitivity." — George Morris, Literary Review"Thanks to works as insightful as this one, we can better appreciate the early efforts to understand the mind." — Simon Ings, New Scientist"An important addition to the history of psychiatry, but also to histories of folklore and religion in the 19th century." — Jennifer Wallis, Fortean Times"Fascinating" — A Bad Witch's Blog"This innovative "mental archaeology" sets new agendas for historians of madness and the supernatural, showing the surprising cross-fertilization between faith and psychiatry in the nineteenth century. From the theorists of "demonomania" to the unfortunate souls whose fears blended witchcraft with electricity, the book brings to life the remarkable stories of people grappling with irrationality in modernity." — Dr William G. Pooley, University of Bristol"Troubled by Faith offers a rich and memorable examination of the supernatural in nineteenth-century culture. Physicians pathologized magical thinking, but the so-called delusions of asylum patients were rooted in broader societal currents. Combining meticulous research with incisive analysis, Owen Davies compels us to reflect on the madness inherent in modernity." — Dr Martha McGill, University of Warwick"A fascinating read" — Elizabeth Wood"Davies makes a convincing case for the significance of asylums to debates about religion and the supernatural." — Michael Ledger-Lomas, London Review of Books"The book's great strength lies here, in the details, the vignettes, the stories of lives upended by tragedy and illness, and the ways in which physicians sought to alleviate suffering and gain a better understanding of what it was that led people to injure themselves or others, what caused melancholia or mania, and how religious belief played a part in this...It would have been helpful to find clearer definitions of slippery terms like 'religious belief' and 'insanity' from the outset...But the book as a whole provides a fascinating insight into the significance of religious belief and practice within the Victorian asylum and, perhaps, those unanswered questions serve to remind the reader that the borders between religious belief and insanity are more blurred than many of us would like to suppose." — Georgia Byrne, The Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society"Troubled by Faith offers a nuanced perspective on the enduring power of supernatural beliefs in the face of scientific advancement, providing a compelling examination of how individuals and institutions grappled with rapid changes in the age of the asylum." — Kelly Bratkowski, Reading Religion"In Troubled by Faith: Insanity and the Supernaturalin the Age of the Asylum, Owen Davies has conscientiouslyexcavated a seam of medical history to investigatethe relationship between religion, faith, and insanity in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Britain (and Europe)." — Ruth Harris, American Historical Review