The Duality of the Mind: A New View of Insanity

First published in the mid-nineteenth century, The Duality of the Mind: A New View of Insanity by Adrian L. Wigan, M.D. presents one of the earliest and most intriguing theories in the history of psychiatry—the idea that the human mind operates through two distinct but interdependent hemispheres, each capable of independent action, thought, and disorder.

Challenging conventional notions of unity in consciousness, Wigan argues that madness and delusion may arise when one hemisphere acts without the control or harmony of the other. Drawing upon case studies, medical observation, and philosophical reflection, he offers a vision of the brain as a divided yet cooperative organ—a theory that prefigured later discoveries in neurology and split-brain research by more than a century.

Part medical treatise and part philosophical meditation, this work stands as a landmark in the study of mind, identity, and insanity, bridging early Victorian medicine and modern neuroscience.

Complete edition of Adrian L. Wigan’s pioneering medical-philosophical study

Introduces the theory of hemispheric duality in relation to mental illness

Anticipates later developments in brain science and psychology

Essential for readers of psychiatry, neuroscience, and the history of psychology