The inner side of wisdom: suicide in early modern England

Abstract

Synopsis: This essay traces the shifting perception of the nature and prevalence of suicide in early modern England. Suicide is presented as one form of deviance contemporaries recognized and is used to illuminate the history of mental disorder in its social and intellectual context.Daft Meg [an idiot and suicide] was a sort of household familiar among us, and there was much like the inner side of wisdom in the pattern of her sayings, many of which are still preserved as proverbs.John Galt, Annals of the Parish, p. 126.