Beyond the Asylum

Rezensionen / Stimmen

This book is a must-read for any specialist in the history of colonial and post-colonial psychiatry, as well as a fantastic case study for those interested in the social history of European colonialism more generally.

(Choice) Beyond the Asylum is a brilliant piece of research, draw[ing] on extensive work in Vietnamese, French, and Cambodian archives. When combined with her gifted prose, Edington's meticulous research comes alive, giving the reader a sense of meeting some of the patients, doctors, and families that she discusses.

(American Historical Review) Edington's account is distinguished by the way she escapes the confines of the asylum-and a certain kind of postcolonial scholarship-and instead uses the history of psychiatry and mental illness as a means to explore the wider dynamics of colonial rule. In so doing, she engages with important debates across a range of fields, most notably the history of medicine, the history of imperialism, and Vietnamese studies

(Pacific Affairs) The author includes a lot of comment on the sociological impetuses and impacts of such problems and discusses the reasons behind the developments which took place, in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century in Vietnam, to cope with the rise of understanding of the problems of mental health.

(Asian Affairs) [T]his is an admirable and valuable publication. The work provides a much needed study of the colonial asylum and modern psychiatry's interaction with Vietnamese society. The author's argument is convincing, research robust, and writing flawless.

(Journal of Modern History)