{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1479829781?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1479829781","authors":["Judith Weisenfeld"],"book_id":"9781479829781","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781479829781","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781479829781.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","description":"Uncovers how white psychiatrists pathologized African American religions In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed ?religious excitement? among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements ?cults,? unworthy of respect. As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse, psychiatrists? notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists? theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people?s unfitness for freedom. Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery?s wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781479829781","publication_date":"20250429","publisher":"NYU Press","slug":"black-religion-in-the-madhouse","subtitle":"Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake","title":"Black Religion in the Madhouse"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"REL015000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Christian History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"REL075000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Psychology of Religion","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC070000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Race & Ethnic Relations","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}],"hint":[],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"REL015000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Christian History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"REL075000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Psychology of Religion","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC070000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Race & Ethnic Relations","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Christian History","score":1,"slug":"christian-history"},{"label":"Psychology of Religion","score":1,"slug":"psychology-of-religion"},{"label":"Race & Ethnic Relations","score":1,"slug":"race-ethnic-relations"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Christian History","Good for readers who enjoy Christian History and Psychology of Religion."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Brian C. Muraresku","Michael Pollan","Graham Hancock","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9781250803986","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250803986.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":6.9372,"title":"The Immortality Key","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250803986"},{"authors":["Derecka Purnell"],"book_id":"9781662601668","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781662601668.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":5.5435,"title":"Becoming Abolitionists","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781662601668"},{"authors":["Heather Ann Thompson"],"book_id":"9780593702093","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593702093.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":5.5374,"title":"Fear and Fury","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593702093"},{"authors":["Shannon Clay","Lady","Kristin Schwartz","Michael Staudenmaier"],"book_id":"9781629639727","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781629639727.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":5.5299,"title":"We Go Where They Go","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781629639727"},{"authors":["W. Kamau Bell","Kate Schatz"],"book_id":"9781523514281","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781523514281.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":5.486,"title":"Do the Work!","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781523514281"},{"authors":["E. P. Sanders"],"book_id":"9780140144994","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780140144994.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":5.3524,"title":"The Historical Figure of Jesus","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780140144994"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Reading lane: Christian History and Psychology of Religion.","Publisher: NYU Press."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":11,"goodreads_reviews_count":8,"quality_score":0.8448}}