"Seeing the Insane" is a richly detailed cultural history of madness and art in the Western world, showing how the portrayal of stereotypes has both reflected and shaped the perception and treatment of the mentally disturbed. Covering the Middle Ages through the end of the nineteenth century, Sander L. Gilman explores the depictions of mental illness as seen in manuscripts, sculptures, lithographs, and photography. With artistic renderings and medical illustrations side-by-side, this volume includes over 250 visual displays of the mentally ill. These images capture society's reliance on visual motifs to assign concrete qualities to abstract ailments in an attempt to understand the marginalized. Gilman's collection of images demonstrates how society has relegated the mentally ill to a state of "otherness" and portrays how society's perceived realities concerning the insane have morphed and evolved over centuries.

Sander L. Gilman, PhD, is a distinguished professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences as well as Professor of Psychiatry at Emory University. A respected educator, he has served as Old Dominion Visiting Professor of English at Princeton; Northrop Frye Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto; Mellon Visiting Professor of Humanities at Tulane University; Goldwin Smith Professor of Humane Studies at Cornell University; and Professor of the History of Psychiatry at Cornell Medical College. He has written and edited several books including "The Face of Madness" and "Sexuality: An Illustrated History."

""Seeing the Insane" is a visual history of the stereotypes that have shaped the perception of the mentally ill from medieval through modern times. The result is nearly as heartbreaking as a visual history of the Holocaust. In picture after picture, the book portrays centuries of intolerance for deviance, mindless cruelty, unthinking prejudice, and self-righteous abuse of the weak and ill."

-"American Journal of Psychiatry"

"As extraordinary in concept as it is in its execution. . . . This remarkable book helps laymen as well as specialists to see the insane, but it does far more. When we study the past, we understand the present. When we see the conventional stereotype images of insanity, we find they still color our concepts of madness. Through these pictures of the insane, we see all humanity. We look, not through a glass darkly, but through a multiplicity of media, brightly."

-"Antiquarian Bookman"

Rev. James Lamb has provided the Afro centric Spiritual community a tremendous literary historical-theological treatise. The psycho-social issues facing the African American community today have their roots in the legacy of white supremacy which has dominated Black life in all areas of human activity, including economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war. BLACK uncovers the historical legacy of this dehumanization process and provides the solution for the African American community to reclaim its African soul by restoring its memory of the Ancient Egyptian genius to address contemporary struggles of Black life in all areas of people activity, including economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war. Rev. Richard D. Bullard, ThM Senior Pastor of Grace Evangelical Baptist Church Pine Bluff, Arkansas "This book parallels the practice of religion and the history of African and African American culture. Rev. Lamb takes the reader on his lifelong journey of discovery and realizations of his morality and his responsibility as a man of the cloth. This book offers compelling dialogue that makes the reader reflect and search within for answers we should all seek for ourselves." Garbo Hearne, Independent Bookseller, Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing BLACK: A clear straight forward historical and present day look into the complex world of Black people. From genius Empires displayed historically through slavery, Jim Crow, racial tension and Black on Black crimes; BLACK stands as a monument of practical resource information giving revelation of a great history. BLACK should be required reading in all educational institutions. Frazier Lamb Social Worker Department of Children Family Services State of Connecticut