In the quiet & still air of delightful studies… open up one of these October arrivals.
Irish insanity, 1800-2000 / Damien Brennan. Barnsley : New York, NY : Routledge, 2014.
New in the Routledge Advance in Sociology series, this book investigates the national public asylum system in Ireland that was established during the early nineteenth century. You can find a review of this book in journal Nurse Education in Practice [McGill users only] or listen to an interview with the author on RTÉ, an Irish radio program.
Lament of the dead : psychology after Jung’s Red book / James Hillman & Sonu Shamdasani. New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.
Two scholars dissect and discuss Carl Jung’s Red Book, a manuscript book of texts and illustrations that the psychoanalyst created as a record of his unconscious over the course of more than 15 years. You can read a brief review of this book in Publisher’s Weekly (and find a translation of the Red Book here).
Die Steinschneider : eine Kulturgeschichte menschlichen Leidens und ärztlicher Kunst / Dieter Hauri. Berlin : Springer Verlag, 2013.
Calculi, otherwide known as stones, that form in the kidneys or bladder have long afflicted patients and preoccupied doctors. Lithotomy (literally, “cutting stones”) is in fact one of the oldest surgical procedures practiced. This book provides a cultural history of the ailment and its treatment throughout history.
To catch a virus / John Booss and Marilyn J. August. Washington, DC : ASM Press, 2013.
This book weaves together stories and historical research to paint a picture of the history of diagnostic virology, from the 1793 yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia to the discovery of HIV/AIDS in the 21st century. You can read a review of this book in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases [McGill users only].
Le Corbusier’s Venice hospital project : an investigation into its structural formulation / Mahnaz Shah. Burlington, VT : Ashgate Publishing Company, 2013.
From the publisher’s website:
While Le Corbusier’s urban projects are generally considered confrontational in their relationship to the traditional urban fabric, his proposal for the Venice hospital project remained an exercise in preserving the medieval fabric of the city of Venice through a systemic replication of its urban tissue. This book offers a detailed study of Le Corbusier’s Venice hospital project as a plausible built entity. In addition, it analyses it in the light of its supposed affinity with the medieval urban configuration of the city of Venice.