Unmentionable Madness: Gender, Disability, and Shame in the Malaria Treatment of Neurosyphilis

— —

Christin L. Hancock

Unmentionable Madness

Gender, Disability, and Shame in the Malaria Treatment of Neurosyphilis

Christin L. Hancock

$57.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

University of Illinois Press
07 January 2025

History of the Americas; Disability: social aspects; Neurology & clinical neurophysiology; Coping with illness

Series: Disability Histories

In 1930, neurosyphilis struck an unsuspecting Mabel Smith. Doctors at the Central State Hospital for the Insane in Indianapolis turned to malaria therapy--a radical treatment that relied on the belief that infection with malaria might save Smith’s life by attacking the bacterium that causes syphilis.

Christin L. Hancock looks through the lens of feminist disability to examine the popular but ethically suspect treatment and its consequences. As Hancock shows, the treatment’s purported success rate relied on the disabled minds and bodies of people incarcerated in mental hospitals. The backgrounds and identities of these patients reflected and perpetuated attitudes around poverty, gender, race, and disability while betraying authorities’ desire to protect the public from women and men perceived as abnormal, sexually tainted, and unworthy of community life.

Paying special attention to the patients’ voices and experiences, Unmentionable Madness offers a disability history that confronts the ethics of experimentation.

By: Christin L. Hancock
Imprint: University of Illinois Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9780252088223
ISBN 10: 0252088220
Series: Disability Histories
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 07 January 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Christin L. Hancock is a professor of history and gender, women, and sexuality studies at the University of Portland and associate dean for curriculum in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Reviews for Unmentionable Madness: Gender, Disability, and Shame in the Malaria Treatment of Neurosyphilis

"""The close-range analysis offers something new to the field by amplifying the perspective of a patient, and by extension other patients, whose experiences have been quantified but rarely confronted head on.""--Erika Dyck, coeditor of Expanding Mindscapes: A Global History of Psychedelics"