Sin and Sanity in Nineteenth-century America

Sin and Sanity in Nineteenth-Century America is an intellectual and cultural history of moral insanity in America. It argues that moral insanity functioned as a naturalized description of the bound will, as a negotition between theology and the scientific 'study of man', and as a critique of the selfishness of diseased society. This dissertation explores the writings of nineteenth-century alienists, trial transcripts, gallows sermons, newspaper coverage of sensational trials, an inmate literary magazine, and the American Journal of Insanity. It argues that moral insanity as a concept functioned not, as sometimes argued, as a secularization of the concept of sin, but as an attempt to sacralize society and, in particular, the law. I have employed the term politicization of grace to describe the complex ways in which the movement to reform the insanity defence to include diseases of the volition was understood in the context of broader religious debates about the self, sin, responsibility, and punishment.

Department dc:contributor.department

Religion, Study of

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Boyer, Jodie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Klassen, Pamela

• moral insanity
• sin
• mental health
• 19th century religion
• asylum
• freedom
• will
• reason

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/43481

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/43481