Journeys into Madness—Mapping Mental Illness in the Austro-Hungary Empire

Volume 14 of the series Austrian and Habsburg Studies brings together essays considering the Austria-Hungarian understanding of mental illness with a particular focus on journeys both figurative and literal. Blackshaw (art history, Plymouth U.) and Wieber (art history, U. of Glasgow) have selected contributions illustrating the 1900's Viennese cultural understanding of mental illness, including a peculiar fetishization of the afflicted signified by tourist trips to asylums and collecting art produced by the mentally disturbed. Other topics include analysis of painters and authors of the time and the popularization of spa-like sanatoriums for nervous disorders. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Sabine Wieber is Lecturer in Art History at the University of Glasgow. She has published on German and Austrian design culture, German national identity and constructions of gender in Vienna circa 1900. She co-curated the exhibition Madness and Modernity: Art, Architecture and Mental Illness in Vienna 1900 (Vienna, 2010).