Eva Andersen’s chapter, “Knowledge Sparks: Rethinking Progress and Scientific Discovery in Nineteenth-Century Psychiatry,” is now available open access in History of Intellectual Culture 5/2026: Technology and the Making of History (De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2026), pp. 229–258.

How can historians account for psychiatric knowledge that remained local, temporary, or was subsequently forgotten? Introducing the concept of “knowledge sparks,” Andersen explores how small-scale and short-lived exchanges can illuminate the production and circulation of psychiatric knowledge beyond narratives of lasting scientific breakthroughs.

Through a case study of general paralysis, now known as neurosyphilis, the chapter examines the circulation of knowledge across nineteenth-century Europe. It highlights the experimental and fragmented nature of scientific practices and makes a case for including forgotten histories and failures in the history of psychiatry.

The chapter is freely available here.