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Bernard Mandeville: A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Diseases (1730)

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Editors:
  1. Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon

    1. University of Paris VIII, Saint-Denis, France

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  • Presents a major text on hypochondria and hysteria by a major 18th century philosopher
  • Shows that Mandeville may be seen as the rightful precursor of the Freudian talking cure
  • Makes available a work that has been unavailable for more than thirty years

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon
    Pages 1-13

  3. Preface to the First Edition (1711)

    • Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon
    Pages 15-23

  4. Preface to the Second, Enlarged Edition (1730)

    • Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon
    Pages 25-37

  5. The First Dialogue Between Philopirio a Physician, and Misomedon His Patient

    • Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon
    Pages 39-71

  6. The Second Dialogue Between Philopirio a Physician, and Misomedon His Patient

    • Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon
    Pages 73-126

  7. The Third Dialogue Between Philopirio a Physician, Misomedon and Polytheca His Patients

    • Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon
    Pages 127-185

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 187-238
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Keywords

About this book

This work reflects on hypochondria as well as on the global functioning of the human mind and on the place of the patient/physician relationship in the wider organisation of society. First published in 1711, revised and enlarged in 1730, and now edited and published with a critical apparatus for the first time, this is a major work in the history of medical literature as well as a complex literary creation. Composed of three dialogues between a physician and two of his patients, Mandeville’s Treatise mirrors the digressive structure of a talking cure. Thanks to the soothing and enlightening effects of this casual conversation, the physician Mandeville demonstrates the healing power of words for a class of patients that he presents as men of learning who need above all to be addressed in their own language. Mandeville’s aim was to delineate his own cure for hypochondria and hysteria, which consisted of a talking cure followed by diet and exercise, but also to discuss the practice of medicine in England and continental Europe at a time when physicians were beginning to lose ground to apothecaries. Opposing a purely theoretical approach to medicine, Mandeville takes up the principles presented by Francis Bacon, Thomas Sydenham, and Giorgio Baglivi, and advocates a medical practice based on experience and backed up by time-tested theories.

Reviews

“By exploring the deep‐time history of psychoanalysis, the book will be of interest to a broad audience, from psychoanalysts to students, curious readers, and historians of mentality. It is a reflection on the very essence of psychoanalysis and will serve a basis for further explorations in multiple directions. … Mandeville's text and the added information form a well-balanced sum of primary data and explanatory material, which will serve as a basis for psychoanalytic analysis and introspection.” (Alain Touwaide, Doody's Book Reviews, January, 2018)

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Paris VIII, Saint-Denis, France

    Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon

About the editor

Sylvie Kleiman-Lafon is assistant professor in English literature at the University of Paris VIII. A specialist of XVIIIth century British literature, she has mainly written on XVIIIth-century Scotland, British literature of the XVIIIth century, translation in England and France during the Enlightenment and the relationship between medicine and literature.

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