A History of Delusions: The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse

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Victoria Shepherd

A History of Delusions

The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse

Victoria Shepherd

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Hardback

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English

One World
03 May 2022

From the presenter of the Radio 4 hit series A History of Delusions

Why would someone wake up and claim they’re Napoleon? Or believe they have been turned into a wolf and demand to be fed raw meat? For centuries, we’ve dismissed delusions as a problem for the shrinks to sort out in distant asylums.

But delusions are more than just bizarre case studies – they tell stories of collective anxieties and traumas. In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd explores delusions from ancient times to present and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness. Isn’t it perfectly understandable to believe you’ve got the wrong head when the guillotine takes the heads of hundreds every day? Who cannot sympathise with the man who believes he is already dead, when all his comrades died in the battlefields?

We all have it in us to become delusional. In understanding delusions, we come closer to understanding ourselves.

By: Victoria Shepherd
Imprint: One World
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm,
ISBN: 9780861540914
ISBN 10: 0861540913
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 03 May 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print

Victoria Shepherd conceived and produced the ten-part series A History of Delusions for BBC Radio 4. She has produced scores of documentaries and major strands for BBC Radio 4; she is also a writer, with an M.A. in creative writing from the University of East Anglia.

Reviews for A History of Delusions: The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse

'This fascinating and compassionate exploration of minds in crisis reveals the articulate, sustaining and explicable nature of delusion. Engrossing in its explorations and deeply moving in its findings, this is a captivating study of how expressions of trauma can be understood, and a powerful argument for treatment by kind attention .' -- Horatio Clare, author of <i>Heavy Light</i> 'Riveting case histories grounded in context and narrated with novelistic verve and impressive authority.' -- Julie Kavanagh, author of The Irish Assassins.