Inheriting madness: professionalization and psychiatric knowledge in nineteenth-century France
Year: 1991
Type: book-review
Abstract: Unicornis has featured widely as a mythical animal and has given rise to many fantasies.There has been much speculation about its identity, but the oryx must be the favourite . . .In Africa and Arabia there are several species of oryx.The Arabian oryx is about the size of the ibex, has big feet for walking on sand and long slender annulated horns.The horns are soft in the young oryx and often get damaged or deformed during growth.The result can be the reduction of one horn to a curly insignificant stump.Thus the oryx becomes the unicorn.(p.87.)While some mention is made of its mythology, the wonder of the unicorn and the richness of the traditions associated with it, for example that is was a symbol of Christ hunted from heaven by the angel Gabriel, is lost among the details about the way the creature is depicted by the artists of the different families of bestiaries.At other points the discussions are heavily literal and chiefly paraphrases and translations of the bestiary entries about the animal:
Source: Choice Reviews Online
Author: Smith, Roger
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2321345758