A History of Delusions: The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse

by Victoria Shepherd

The extraordinary ways the brain can misfire

‘Fascinating and compassionate’ Horatio Clare

For centuries we’ve dismissed delusions as something for doctors to sort out behind locked doors. But delusions are more than just bizarre quirks – they hold the key to collective anxieties and traumas.

In this groundbreaking history, Victoria Shepherd uncovers stories of delusions from medieval times to the present day and implores us to identify reason in apparent madness.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Psychology, Science, Audiobook, Microhistory, Health

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Rhian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright. This is a very interesting subject that would make a good ten-minute YouTube video. Or a long article. About 10% of it is interesting information, and the rest is fluff and padding. The grammar is pretty poor too, so I hope they get an edit on it before publication. 3 stars because I guess I finished it, even though I was skipping whole pages and passages by the end.

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book is like when you have to peer review essays in english class and your teacher pairs you with the stupid kid

[Sandra Deaconu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deși nu am fost de acord cu părerea autoarei despre deliruri, cartea mi s-a părut foarte interesantă.

[Lauren Peterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Victoria Shepherd delves into the notion of delusions and examines multiple case studies in her nonfiction book A History of Delusions: The Glass King, a Substitute Husband and a Walking Corpse. The goal of the book seems to be in breaking down certain assumptions about delusions and to track the evolving opinions of them in the medical community. Shepherd uses various examples spanning from medieval times to today in her examination of delusions. While the premise and cases are certainly fascinating, the book quickly lost my attention and I had to really bear down to finish each chapter. Each delusion case was dissected and exhausted and Shepherd often pulled from other cases to extend the example and length of the chapter. It was unnecessary and distracting from the core focus of each chapter. This really could’ve been an essay or article instead of a 300 page book. I read Shepherd did this as a series for BBC Radio and that too, seems to be a better formatting fit for this topic. Aside from the unnecessary length and extra (unneeded) information, this is an intriguing and insightful examination about a relevant topic that’s still shrouded in mystery and ambiguity within our society. 2.5 stars

Thank you to Kaye Publicity for the copy of this book

[Olivia Heysek · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction to this book was incredible and I was hooked, then was highly disappointed to find out that the contents were mostly fluff

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember as a young trainee in psychiatry, we were taught that some Delusions were, in the words of Karl Jaspers, “Autochthonous” (Auto in Greek meaning relating to Self, Chthon meaning The Underworld: hence they arise from the Depths of the Self). In other words, they are random, non-understandable and without meaning or purpose.
I confess now: I NEVER believed this. I always carried an intuitive feel that no matter how ‘bizarre’, delusions are cognitive attempts by the sufferer to construct meaning from distressing, chaotic, perplexing and disorientating perceptual and emotional experiences.
Such primary experiences can be the consequences of attachment and other traumas and loss, political and social persecution, brain injury and disease, physical injury and disease, intoxication states and a myriad other contributing factors. The contents of delusional beliefs often can reflect the global and local concerns of the epoch at the time. They can hence be markers of body politic. A Psyche that is crushed and on the verge of asphyxiation needs to be boosted. Delusional re-organisations of perceived reality can provide this boost.
The above seems the backbone and core of this book, which demonstrates a compassionate and researched approach to famous past figures who have endured delusional states of being.

[Nata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant and very comprehensive book!!

[Daniel Gheorghe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Foarte repetitivă, bazată mai mult pe presupuneri decât pe adevărul istoric.

[Alina Stepan · Rating 5 out of 5]

O carte incantatoare, in acelasi timp documentata, empatica, istorica, psihologica si literara. Victoria Shepherd, desi s-a documentat din carti pe care le am sau pe care le-am citit, reuseste sa creeze o poveste noua si captivanta despre delirul sub toate formele lui si sa exploreze, in spirit si stil jurnalistic, cauzele posibile ale acestuia, fie ele genetice, neurologice, psihologice, sociale, istorice si politice.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those books that sound so very interesting and promise so many fascinating vignettes, but then never live up to their promises. I'll admit I was put off by it having both a 'Preface' and an 'Introduction' which struck me as excessive and possibly hinted that the author had delusions of grandeur about the significance of her book. But upon reading a few chapters I found Ms. Shepherd's book to be prosaic and, what is worse, exactly what it claimed not to be - a collection of random stories about bizarre 'mad' people.

On top of the lack of any unifying approach to the stories recounted the author's research is so spotty as to verge on the absurd. Her account of the only 20th century historical personage suffering from the 'glass delusion' - a Greek general who 'lost' a World War I Greek-Turkish engagement because he thought his legs were made of glass - is based entirely on a 1958 Time magazine article. That probably explains why it is full fundamental inaccurate - it wasn't a WWI battle but a post WWI engagement during the Greek invasion of Turkey in 1920 - and she doesn't include the general's name which was Hatzianestis nor the information he was executed for his failures. Hatzianestis is one of the senior European military officers to suffer such a fate so I would have thought his name worth mentioning. Unlike Admiral Bing who was executed to 'pour encourager les autres' (Voltaire) Hatzianestis execution was motivated by spite. That Ms. Shepherd doesn't supply Hatzianestis name, which is easily found on Google as well as being the name of a character in the novel 'Middlesex' by Jeffrey Eugenides, is symptomatic of the sloppy, superficial research in this book.

Give it a miss and certainly don't buy it! It is not even a decent loo book.

[Darcia Helle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Psychology fascinates me, as did this book's premise. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the overall execution.

Each chapter of this book features a different case. While interesting, most cases don't contain enough information to carry an entire chapter. Instead we have conjecture and dragged out content.

This was originally a 10-part BBC radio series. I didn't listen to that, but I do think the cases here would make fascinating podcast discussions. I just didn't love the writing style, and didn't feel the content translated well into an engaging reading experience.

*I received a free copy from Kaye Publicity.*

[J C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um livro muito curioso que nos faz acompanhar a história de diferentes personalidades com diferentes patologias mentais, principalmente no campo das psicoses. Sendo um levantamento bibliográfico histórico e altamente individual (por vezes muito difícil) alguns capítulos tiveram de ser preenchidos com mais contexto histórico do que com a história do paciente em si.
De qualquer das formas, é um livro que vale a pena ler porque humaniza estas patologias que refletem os nossos medos mais primitivos do desconhecido e que podem ser ativados por coisas tão simples como o aparecimento de novas tecnologias.

[EuroHackie]

I've nodded off 3 separate times while trying to read this book, so I think it's time to cut my losses. The premise sounded very interesting, but the execution left much to be desired. The first two chapters are nearing 50 pages each, which is just way too exhaustive. There are a lot of unnecessary digressions and speculations about case histories from 200+years ago. Chapter 3 outlined "melancholia" with no details of an accompanying delusion, so WTF?

The author says that this book was written during the Covid lockdowns. It certainly reads like it: like a bored amateur who decided to delve into case histories in the psychological literature and then armchair quarterback all her thoughts and feels about the cases. Why would I care what someone with no background in psychology or clinical training thinks about these people? Why should I care?

The BBC Radio 4 program was at least co-hosted by a clinical psychologist, and I hope it was better presented than this book. Abnormal psychology is a fascinating subject, but its way too easy to get lost in the weeds if you don't know what you're doing.

[Dan Caramidariu · Rating 2 out of 5]

O carte cam slabă.

[Jules Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit too long for the subject spoke of, but overall very nice.

[Mini · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 | This was a very cool read! I personally enjoyed that each story referenced the others, linking the diagnoses across time. It was a little long (10 hour audiobook), but I liked the narrator. A good start for anyone looking to explore the history of mental health, delusions, and hallucinations.

[Dielleina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victoria Shepherd presents much more than stories of delusions: she goes deeper into the cultural and social aspects of this psychological phenomenon. These bizarre characters help us discover collective traumas and anxieties.
More suited for readers interested in history rather than psychology/psychiatry.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 4 out of 5]

What makes a woman believe her entire family has been replaced by doubles?
What makes a a woman believe that The King of England is madly in love with her and an entirely different woman believe that the King has destroyed her life and attempt to stab him?
What makes a King believe that his bones are made of glass and therefore must wrap his posterior in padding so it doesn’t shatter into pieces when he sits down?
While most of these case studies are from the 19th and early 20th centuries, they still provide some important insights into why people believe things that are patently false. Looking at them from the lens of 2022 and an age of disinformation that is tailored to confirmed whatever preconceived biases we may have, it is perhaps even more vital that we understand why people believe what they do even in the face of the most unshakeable evidence.
Psychologists in the past attempted to alleviate these delusions through incarceration, later using (unethical) ruses to trick their patients into abandoning their beliefs such as in the case of three Michigan men who all believed they were Jesus. When their doctor attempted to put them all in the same room in hopes that seeing other “Jesus’s” would convince them that they couldn’t possibly be, rather than correct their delusions, the three men became violent toward each other and probably set their treatment back years.
When dealing with the sad, the frustrated, the lonely, the author posits that rather than using deception or even facts to “cure” them, perhaps the best thing we can do in some cases (where there is not a neurological or clinical issue) is to simply listen to people who simply want to be noticed and listened to. It is not necessary to accept delusional thoughts as fact, but acknowledging the validity of people’s beliefs where it can be found, gives people an eventual off ramp from ideas they are perhaps afraid to walk away from and gives them a kind and friendly ear in a society that rarely lends one.
This was invariably true in 1800, as it is today in 2022.

[Ian B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was partly drawn to this book by the memory of an old history teacher who told us about a French king who was convinced he was made of glass, and that his glass backside would shatter into pieces if he sat down without his special cushions. That king – Charles VI – is in this book, and it turns out believing you were made of glass was quite a widespread delusion in medieval times and beyond. Other delusions described include the woman who complained her husband and daughter were constantly being replaced by a stream of doubles, the men who imagined they were Napoleon, and the clockmaker during the French Revolution who thought his head had been chopped off and he’d been given somebody else’s by mistake.

There’s a lot of interesting detail in these pages, but I had two problems. Firstly, relying on historical case studies inevitably means individuals coming into focus for a short while and then disappearing into history again so that we rarely find out how their stories end (the author does acknowledge this). Secondly, I wasn’t always convinced by Shepherd’s management of her huge range of material. I sometimes felt she wasn’t as authoritative or knowledgeable as she was making herself out to be; the conclusions to each chapter, which I assume were intended as teasingly profound, quite often came across as glib and arbitrary, an attempt at intellectual sleight of hand.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was really disappointing. I wouldn’t have picked it but it was my August Heywood Hill book. Billed as the history of delusions it tells the stories of people in the 18th and 19th centuries who had delusions of some sort - they thought people around them where replaced with doubles, they where made of glass, etc. Unfortunately given its is non-fiction the stories are just piecemeal of what doctors recorded so you really don’t get any understanding of what caused the delusions or what happened to the people over time

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well. The subject matter is inherently interesting to me, so that kept me going through the book. The writing is significantly less interesting. It's meandering and repetitive. There's no point in including lengthy direct quotations if you're just going to parrot back exactly what was in those quotations. The best chapters were, naturally, the shortest ones.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review title: Lying to ourselves

This is a thought-provoking study of the history of self delusions: a king whose body was made of glass, a woman who was already dead, a clock maker who had lost his head to the guillotine, several Napoleons, and a woman who was secretly being pursued by the King of England who is in love with her. As absurd as they seem to the reader today, and as they seemed to the doctors, police, and asylum attendants who heard and recorded their stories, to the men and women who lived them these stories were the truth they lived with every day.

Victoria Shepherd first started researching and writing about these cases--mostly from France and England and spanning from the 14th to the 21st century--for a BBC Radio series, and her writing is both grounded in the historical documentation and compassionately considerate of the mental anguish and compromised lives of those who suffered from these delusions. She points out that one key reason for the geographic clustering of most of these cases is that these two countries were at the forefront of modern reform in the diagnoses and treatment of mental illness in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The victims of delusion were no longer considered incurable criminals or demon-possessed heretics. Delusions had been "caught in a web of philosophical and religious treatises, medical theory and poetry; superstitious, humoral, Christian, and psychological perspectives." (p. 114) But now the existence of historical documentation of the cases covered here is proof that someone took their cases seriously, listened and recorded their stories, and attempted to understand the root cause and cure the victim.

From the clinical documentation and treatment common themes began to emerge. For example. "A delusion of conspiracy organises the enemy. gives a shape to ambiguity, a face to anonymous players and fears. It gives a person a job to do: a bad guy to fight." (p. 98). Shepherd describes some early attempts to talk or trick the patients out of their delusions, a few successful but most not, and later clinical approaches rejected the use of such ruses as unethical and potentially harmful.

At the end of this history, Shepherd concludes "You can't therefore reason someone out of a delusion by explaining why it's not true. It is their best chance of survival" (p. 305); to the person living with the delusion, the delusion is the truth and it is bound tightly to the reality of their life. Reading these case histories helps us to understand, sympathize, and advocate for mental health.

[Kara Demetropoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for content, 2 stars for the style in which it was presented. 4 stars overall.

This book is what it sounds like (kinda). The history of delusions presented is accomplished by providing ten distinct case studies of people with different styles of delusions. The patient's story is told in great detail, as well as various methods of treatment attempted, the outcome, and possible reasons for the occurrence. Some examples include a man who thought he was made of glass, a woman who believed her family had been turned into impostors, a woman who believed she was the rightful heir to the throne of England, and a woman who believed that the king was secretly in love with her.

I loved the premise behind the book - the author really works to showcase the reality lurking behind these delusions, all of which are fascinating. This is a refreshing take on mental illness in general. There are some beautiful passages that appealed to me so much I wrote them out in my journal. The overall "mission" of the book, aside from telling stranger-than-fiction true stories about insanity, is one of compassion. It speaks directly to the necessity for respecting those individuals who find themselves in a different reality than we are experiencing, and honoring their experience as every bit as valid as ours.

That being said, despite loving the material, I found the book very difficult to read. The information was presented in a choppy and seemingly illogical manner - hopping around from one fact the next, referencing tidbits that hadn't been addressed in a while, and meandering off into some strange side alleys that bordered on "pointless ramblings." Like I said, the subject matter was top notch, but I did struggle to get through it.

I was also disappointed in the very narrow scope of the book - it really only covers the history of delusions in England and France between the years of 1600 and 1850. I would have liked to see more examples of modern-day delusions, although she does veer into that territory a bit, mostly to compare past delusions to current ones.

Overall, it's still worth the read. I am glad I sat through it - I learned a lot.

[Kalina Mondzholovska · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love everything that has to do with odd psychological phenomenon, and the title and synopsis of this sounded promising. However, I didn't make it past chapter 3, only read the titles of the rest with skimming through the chapters and returned the book to the library. Like many mention, the substance and information most readers would be actually interested in is only a small portion of each chapter which then proceeds to be a lot of talking in circles, filler information, padding, stretched out pages of repetitiveness and the like.

Some of the conditions such as "melancholia" or modern day depression is well known to a lot, and doesn't fall into the category of what I thought this book is about based on the short attention grabbers on the cover that mention "the glass king, a substitute husband and a walking corpse". The book cover is genuinely more interesting and provides more to the point information than the pages inside (unless you are a history freak on all fronts and are just obsessed with history in general, be it about delusions or not... especially if it's about France, more below).

It appears that this was conceived as a 10-part series for BBC radio, meant to be listened to in auditory format - maybe that would help? Personally, I was just way too bored with this style of writing and going off tangents about French and English history and who wore what, speculations of their personality, life, status, etc. Not that this piece of information is not useful but not when it's pages and pages long. Every single chapter is about a French or an English character... A History of Delusions of France and England and more history about France and England and Extra Fluff" is the actual title of the book.

[Ark · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I initially picked up this book, I was very cautious of the subject matter. We live in a time of pop psychology and the demonization of mental health issues (especially psychosis) is still unfairly prevalent in many forms of media. Fortunately, this book confronts and deconstructs the stigma that haunts discussions of delusion.
Shepherd takes a compassionate view on the most famous and notable cases of delusion throughout history. Within each chapter is a case study that looks not just at the delusion, but at the individual suffering the delusion; while reading, it is very easy to remember that this book is about the people having the delusions. The chapters discuss details of the patients life, putting forward theories on what in their personal life or the culture at the time may have triggered their symptoms, and being empathetic to the distress that the person may face, as well as the safety found in what was previously considered to be a sickness, and what the subconscious may be saying. In particular, I like the quote:
"That's the point of a delusion--it's as clear as a bell, when everything else is confused, contradictory or opaque."
This book was very interesting. People who just want a list of symptoms or a collection of extraordinary case studies, I would reconsider reading this, as you get a comprehensive overview of the true history of some of the most notable delusions and the real people behind them. I will definitely be referring to this book in the future and may even check out the original podcast.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are 2 main complaints that I see in reviews for this book:
1 - grammar errors.
2 - the author "going off on tangents to fill pages".

Complaint 1, I think is fair. There are a couple of passages where commas (and the lack thereof) do pose an issue. I think it could have benefitted from just one last grammar edit.

Complaint 2, I completely disagree with. The book is about delusions throughout history, and how social and cultural factors have affected them. Of course the author dives into historical events, of course we hear about other similar cases, of course we hear about academic debates. If all you want is the intimate details of a person's mental illness, this isn't the book for you. This is a sensitive, compassionate examination of how delusions are shaped not only by personal experiences and beliefs, but also by cultural shifts and mass shared traumas. It showcases the fantasies and defences adopted by the human mind to cope with tragedies beyond individual control, all whilst being mindful of the academic histories and implications of each case.

TLDR: ok, the grammar isn't always perfect but you guys seem to have gone into this book expecting something completely different to me, I think it was great and exactly what the title suggested it would be. 4.5/5, docked only because it needed a final proof-read before bring published

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another case of a fascinating subject averagely showcased. The introduction to this book was amazing and I couldn’t wait to read more but then the rest of the book was written and edited AWFULLY. I almost think the introduction must have been written by someone else? Not only is this book full of 75% fluff, it’s not even written in a logical way that flows, it just jumps all over the place. I couldn’t tell what was fact and what was speculation half the time. However, I persevered and gave an extra star because there were a few redeeming passages and I gained a lot of further reading material. SUCH a shame though because this topic is fascinating and could have made a brilliant (shorter) book. OneWorld Publishing please have this book re edited, the typos and grammatical errors are atrocious.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some interesting ideas in this book, mainly the suggestion that new technology is often incorporated into delusions in interesting ways, which has parallels with our own time. The book came off as confused in trying to appeal to a mass popular audience or a more research academic audience. Sometimes it's a bit in the weeds, other times the interesting tidbits aren't as spelled out as they could be. It spans a great amount of time and is clearly well researched. It was interesting enough, but I was slightly disappointed with the clarity of it, especially when it was very close to making really interesting analysis it just fell slightly short, too careful in its explanations, like there was more potential.

[Jemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting premise. This book details ten stories of different delusions people have suffered from through history and interlinks them and how they impacted the research and treatment for mental health problems.

I think this is a good starting point for further reading into the subject. I was aware of some of the stories prior to reading this but I liked hearing the further information and context.

The audiobook is quite short so can be listened to in a few sittings.

The stories being connected works well and helps add additional context to how the early stories informed the future physicians in the later cases.

[Valerie (Pate) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such an intriguing book. I bought it on a whim after being drawn to its cover. Shepherd has delved into the fascinating topic of delusional psychosis, touching upon some shocking ways in which madness has manifested itself throughout the ages in accordance with the latest crazes, fears, and obsessions of the time.
People have believed themselves to be made of glass, to be the actual Napoleon, to be separated from their heads, or even to be dead!
It is astounding stuff and I ate it right up.
At times the book suffered from poor editing, but overall it was both entertaining and informative.