How To Conduct A Primary Source Analysis

Analysing primary sources at undergraduate level

lt;/p>When analysing a primary source key questions always need to be asked.

lt;/p>· & & & & & What is the nature of the source? Is it a photograph, a journal article, a letter?

· & & & & & Who was it written/produced by? What do we know about the author?

· & & & & & Who is the intended audience?

· & & & & & What is the source trying to convey?

lt;/p>More specific questions must then be followed in order to reach a detailed analysis:

lt;/p>· & & & & & If it is a text: what can the author’s choice of words illustrate?

· & & & & & If it is an image: what does the picture convey?

lt;/p>· & & & & & What historical questions can you answer using this source?

· & & & & & What are its benefits and limitations? (e.g., what questions does it not answer and whose voice is not being heard).

· & & & & & Does the source challenge or support a historiographical argument?

lt;/p>Example source 1:

lt;/p>The Journal of Mental Science (July, 1881). Moral Insanity- Geo H. Savage, M.D. Medical Superintendent of Bethlem Hospital.

lt;/p>p.11. ‘In attempting to define moral insanity it is easier to describe what it is not than to come to a comprehensive definition…’

lt;/p>‘I have seen a state of this kind occur in children of parents who have suffered from some febrile disease, or some constitutional diseases like syphilis, before the begetting of the morally insane child, and I have no doubt that more will be discovered in time as to the relationship between the health of the parent at the time of the begetting and the moral state of the offspring.’ ‘…in referring to intoxication it should be noted that not only is it a sign of moral insanity in many cases, but that it also produces it.’

lt;/p>‘I have seen to cases, born of patients who were in Bethlem while they were pregnant, so that the children were saturated with insanity while still in the womb. In both cases that the mothers had had other children...but the children which they bore after they themselves had been insane were the most fretful they had experienced.’

lt;/p>‘We also meet patients who at adult develop tendencies to crime and to vice. We see those who take to drink without any education or without any special liking either for the status of drunkenness or the process of getting drunk& we see cases in which the offspring of nervous patients... one patient, about 21 or 22 years of age, developed a typical craving for drink (his mother had been nervous). Instead of going out and enjoying the society of his fellows or sitting quietly sipping the drink for a whole evening, he would, when the loss of control exhibited self, go to the nearest source of intoxicating drink and pour it down as quickly as ever he could…’

lt;/p>‘We have at the present time in Bethlem a lady of mixed race, and of a very emotional nervous temperament, who has suffered from neuralgia of one kind and another, and from severe trouble. She attempted to injure a lady of distinction, and has never been convinced that her crime was a crime…In her case other neuroses are exhibited. There is some history in the family of a neurotic tendency, and there is an uncontrollable and unreasonable jealousy that would lead her to injure any object of which she might be jealous.’

lt;/p>Example source 2:

lt;/b>

The Journal of Mental Science (April, 1882)

lt;/b>

Clinical Notes, James C. Howden, Montrose Royal Asylum

lt;/p>p.49. ‘A mason’s wife, aged 26. First admitted to the Montrose Asylum 6^th March, 1855, labouring under acute mania. No special cause alleged, except a feeble constitution inherited from a mother mentally and physically weak. Imagined that God ordered her to mutilate herself- bit a portion off her tongue. She had a brother in the asylum who was admitted in 1854. He presented symptoms similar to his sister. J.C was described by her friends as having always been weakly and unfit for much exertion. She had had two children, but could only nurse them for a short time, and after the birth of each had to keep her bed for three months. Her hight is stated 5ft 4 in& weight 164 lbs. She was stout but constitutionally feeble. Pupils somewhat dilated.

lt;/p>The family of this case is of interest. The tendency to constipation was always marked during the maniacal attacks. The same condition existed in the brother’s case. A younger sister, who was admitted into the asylum in 1874 had it to a still more marked degree. The mother was placed in the asylum in February, 1881, at the age of 78. She is demented, and has been epileptic for 12 years. The father is a man of ordinary intelligence.’

lt;/p> lt;/p>Additional primary sources to analyse:

lt;/p>The Journal of Mental Science (July, 1887)

lt;/b>

Clinical notes: Cases of Masturbatic Insanity. E.C. Spitza

lt;/p>‘P.B., aged 52 years, married happily, has always been a strict man of business. A younger brother is insane since thirty years, and an older sister committed suicide& a second sister is “slightly deranged”. The patient himself has an attack of hypochondriacal insanity in his twenty-seventh year- attributed, was also the disease of the brother, to self-abuse. &His demeanour was obtrusive, mean and selfish. & ‘She had always been “nervous” her father had suffered from neurasthenia and her brother was “nervous”. Her right hand-grasp was 40 and her left hand-grasp was 20. The patient had had influenza four years before more visit, after this he became weaker and less sociable’

lt;/b>

The Journal of Mental Science (1890): ‘The Mouth in Backward Children (Imbecile)’ by Robert Jones (Medical Superintendent, Earlswood Asylum).

lt;/p>p.187

lt;/p>‘We hear from one authority that a highly arched palate and contracted jaws are a sure sign of weak-mindedness& so sure, that imbecility can be diagnosed as congenital or otherwise according to their presence. In many of these children the enamel of the teeth is irregular, easily broken down, pitted, and grooved, and it would be interesting to find out the further relations between the teeth and the nervous system.’

lt;/p>August 1903, The Lancet. lt;/b>

lt;/b>

The Development of Insanity in Regard to Civilisation. Robert Jones, M.D. Resident Physician and Superintendent to the London County Asylum, Claybury.

lt;/b>

‘The object of this address is to demonstrate that with the progress of civilisation mental breakdown becomes more serious and more frequent. The sum-total of the physical, moral, social, and religious energy which has caused our progress during the past century has been unparalleled in the history of man, but action and reaction are always equal and contrary and we shall find that our advances has not been without sacrifice- and that civilisation itself has not been unmixed blessing, for in the struggle which has marked our advancement the conflict between intelligence and ignorance has resulted not solely in pure reason and limpid wisdom, but the path of progress has been freely strewn with mental wreckage and physical degeneration.’ lt;/p> lt;/b>

Important secondary reading:

Daniel Pick, &Faces of Degeneration: A European Disorder, c. 1848-c.1918 &(Cambridge University Press, 1989). lt;b>

Andrew Scull, lt;i>Madness in Civilization lt;/i>(London: Thames Hudson, 2015), ch. 8 `Degeneration and Despair`. lt;/p> lt;/b>

Jamboard link:

lt;/b>

https://jamboard.google.com/d/1KWsxMXee507MUTTPtL-c6qQ7Gg0jnQYgGmx0lfyeajI/edit?usp=sharing

lt;/b>