Chris studied History at the University of York for his BA, and Modern History at the same institution for his MA; his Master\u2019s Thesis was an investigation into the \u2018Syndrome of Delicate Self-Cutting\u2019 in the late 1960s in a largely North American context. He is interested in the history and philosophy of science and medicine, the history of sex difference, the history and symbolism of self-modification, the techniques of psychiatric treatment and research, and the inventions of contemporary selfhood.<\/p>\n
Research interests:
\n\u201cAttempted suicide\u201d \u2013 self-poisoning, self-damage and the \u201ccry for help\u201d in Britain 1948-1977<\/p>\n
Chris\u2019 research centres an \u2018epidemic of attempted suicide\u2019 between the late 1950s and mid-1970s in Britain. Many different clinicians – psychiatrists, psychologists, casualty officers, social workers and toxicologists \u2013 were involved across a number of sites \u2013 London, Edinburgh, Oxford, and Liverpool. These clinicians produced a stable archetype for this behaviour: young, working-class women, impulsively taking an overdose of medication. They also attached a more or less stable meaning to it: a \u2018cry for help\u2019 in response to intolerable distress, caused by marital, romantic or domestic problems. The aim of the thesis is to account for the rise and subsequent fall of the behavioural pattern in historical terms, looking at the changing provision of psychiatric expertise at general hospitals (principally concerning the Mental Health Act 1959), the decriminalisation of suicide (Suicide Act 1961) and the rise of psychiatric epidemiology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chris studied History at the University of York for his BA, and Modern History at the same institution for his MA; his Master\u2019s Thesis was an investigation into the \u2018Syndrome of Delicate Self-Cutting\u2019 in the late 1960s in a largely North American context. He is interested in the history and philosophy of science and medicine, […] Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-417","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/emotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/emotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/emotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/emotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/emotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/emotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/emotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/417\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.history.qmul.ac.uk\/emotions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}