From The House with the Green Shutters to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour: the portrayal of alcohol in the modern Scottish novel.

In modern Scottish literature alcohol is a recurrent subject; this paper examines the different ways it is portrayed with particular emphasis on the novel. It has been seen as the resort of the weak-minded and the cause of personal degradation. It has been portrayed as a response to and a symptom of social disintegration. It has been depicted as leading to delirium and psychosis. On a positive note it has been hailed as a source of inspiration and as a means of celebration. It has helped some troubled characters find the road to redemption. Along the way we encounter various literary stereotypes of the drinker, while the pub forms the backdrop to much of the action.

The secular and the supernatural: madness and psychiatry in the short stories of Muriel Spark.

Edinburgh-born Muriel Spark is one of modern Scotland's greatest writers. Examination of her work reveals that the subjects of madness and psychiatry are recurrent themes in her writing. She herself had a mental breakdown when she was a young woman and she took an interest in the world of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. In her short stories, Spark approaches the subject of madness in a variety of ways: she relates it to the supernatural; to writing fiction; and to religion. She frequently juxtaposes secular and supernatural explanations of mental disturbance. Spark adopts a sceptical and, at times, mocking view of psychiatrists and psychiatric treatment. Both psychoanalysis and pills are seen as problematic.

Madness at the crossroads: John Home's letters from the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, 1886-87.

A detailed and critical discussion of John Home, a certified inmate of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum during 1886-87, is presented from a historical perspective which is sensitive to the respective positions of the practitioner and the patient. Particular attention is paid to the letters Home wrote during his confinement and their significance for understanding asylum life during this period. Some interpretative difficulties surrounding the use of medical records, patient letters and other related evidence are also examined.

Mental illness and the late Victorians: a study of patients admitted to three asylums in York, 1880-1884.

The case histories of the patients newly admitted to the Retreat Asylum in York between 1880-1884 were examined. Most patients were aged under 50 years, single and non-Quaker, and a majority satisfied the Research Diagnostic Criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorder. It was found that 72.9% of the patients were deluded, the most common delusions being of persecution, grandeur and guilt; in 34.9% of the deluded patients, the delusion had a religious content. Suicidal ideation was recorded in the case records of 31.4% of the patients. Drug therapy was commonly prescribed, a history of assault on other patients or asylum staff was recorded in 38.1% of the patients, and 11% of patients were force fed at some stage during their illness. Within a year of admission 49.1% of the patients were discharged, the prognosis being better for patients with an affective illness than for schizophrenia, but 31.4% remained in the asylum for five or more years. The characteristics, alleged causes of mental illness, and treatment and outcome of the Retreat patients were compared with those of patients admitted during the same period to the two other York asylums which served different socio-economic groups of the population. Mortality rates were higher in the asylum admitting mainly pauper patients, and possible reasons for this are explored.

Electricity: a history of its use in the treatment of mental illness in Britain during the second half of the 19th century.

The use of electricity in British psychiatry during the second half of the 19th century is examined. An account is given of the clinical and theoretical aspects of electrical therapy. Factors leading to its use and eventual decline are considered.

A critique of Hoffman's analysis of schizophrenic speech.

In a recent paper (R. E. Hoffman, L. Kirstein, S. Stopek, & D. V. Cicchetti, 1982, Brain and Language, 15, 207-233), Hoffman et al. outlined a method of analyzing schizophrenic speech. This method is briefly described. When this method was applied to transcripts of psychotic speech in a subsequent study, major flaws in the system became evident. Despite its claims to be a semiobjective method there are still a great deal of intuitive judgments involved and the analyst has to make numerous ad hoc decisions. This applies particularly to the determination of deviance in a transcript.