

Genetics in the Madhouse
The Unknown History of Human Heredity
Author: Theodore M. Porter
Narrator: Mike Chamberlain
Unabridged: 14 hr 1 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Published: 06/05/2018
Categories: Nonfiction, Medical, Psychology, Mental Health
Synopsis
In this compelling book, Theodore Porter draws on untapped archival evidence from across Europe and North America to bring to light the hidden history behind modern genetics. He looks at the institutional use of pedigree charts, censuses of mental illness, medical-social surveys, and other data techniques—innovative quantitative practices that were worked out in the madhouse long before the manipulation of DNA became possible in the lab. Porter argues that asylum doctors developed many of the ideologies and methods of what would come to be known as eugenics, and deepens our appreciation of the moral issues at stake in data work conducted on the border of subjectivity and science.