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French-language finalist in non-fiction for
2007 Governor General Awards

André Cellard and Marie-Claude Thifault

Une toupie sur la tête: Visages de la folie à Saint-Jean-de-Dieu

(Montréal, Boréal, 2007)

 

"For three and a half months, I've had a spinning top in my head," declared a patient at the Saint-Jean-de-Dieu in 1902 when questioned by his physician. It was a brilliant image from a person who felt his mind had deserted him. Starting from the words of the men and women incarcerated at Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, as well as those from their friends and relatives, the authors seek to unravel the meanings behind multiple expressions of madness at the turn of the last century within the walls of this famous asylum. They discuss the anxieties, the sorrows, the delusions as well as the hopes of those who were interned, in such large numbers, in Saint-Jean-de-Dieu.