This blog follows the history of psychiatry

The June 2013 issue issue of History of Psychiatry is now available online:

Articles

Ergotism in Norway. Part 2: The symptoms and their interpretation from the eighteenth century onwards (Torbjørn Alm and Brita Elvevåg)

Ergotism, the disease caused by consuming Claviceps purpurea, a highly poisonous, grain-infecting fungus, occurred at various places scattered throughout Norway during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By focusing on these cases we chart the changing interpretations of the peculiar disease, frequently understood within a religious context or considered as a supernatural (e.g. ghostly) experience. However, there was a growing awareness of the disease ergotism, and from the late eighteenth century onwards it was often correctly interpreted as being due to a fungus consumed via bread or porridge. Also, nineteenth-century fairy-tales and regional legends reveal that people were increasingly aware and fearful of the effects of consuming infected grain.

From psychiatric symptom to diagnostic category: self-harm from the Victorians to DSM-5 (Sander L Gilman)

It is rare that a symptom becomes a disease entity. ‘Self-harm’ is now a full-fledged diagnostic category for DSM-5. The existing literature of the topic posits that it is a trans-historical psychiatric category and that examples of self-harm can be found from the earliest written records, which is part of the underlying argument for its inclusion in DSM-5. But how old is self-harm and indeed what defines ‘self-harm’ historically and culturally?

Neopositivism and the DSM psychiatric classification. An epistemological history. Part 1: Theoretical comparison (Massimiliano Aragona) 

Recent research suggests that the DSM psychiatric classification is in a paradigmatic crisis and that the DSM-5 will be unable to overcome it. One possible reason is that the DSM is based on a neopositivist epistemology which is inadequate for the present-day needs of psychopathology. However, in which sense is the DSM a neopositivist system? This paper will explore the theoretical similarities between the DSM structure and the neopositivist basic assumptions. It is shown that the DSM has the following neopositivist features: (a) a sharp distinction between scientific and non-scientific diagnoses; (b) the exclusion of the latter as nonsensical; (c) the faith on the existence of a purely observable basis (the description of reliable symptoms); (d) the introduction of the operative diagnostic criteria as rules of correspondence linking the observational level to the diagnostic concept.

A ‘German world’ shared among doctors: a history of the relationship between Japanese and German psychiatry before World War II (Akira Hashimoto)

This article deals with the critical history of German and Japanese psychiatrists who dreamed of a ‘German world’ that would cross borders. It analyses their discourse, not only by looking at their biographical backgrounds, but also by examining them in a wider context linked to German academic predominance and cultural propaganda before World War II. By focusing on Wilhelm Stieda, Wilhelm Weygandt and Kure Shuzo, the article shows that the positive evaluation of Japanese psychiatry by the two Germans encouraged Kure, who was eager to modernize the treatment of and institutions for the mentally ill in Japan. Their statements on Japanese psychiatry reflect their ideological and historical framework, with reference to national/ethnic identity, academic position, and the relationship between Germany and Japan.

The bones of the insane (Jennifer Wallis)

This article examines alienist explanations for fracture among British asylum patients in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. A series of deaths in asylums came to light in the 1870s which, in placing the blame for such incidents on asylum staff, called for a response from the psychiatric profession. This response drew upon other medical fields and employed novel pathological techniques to explain why fractures occurred among the insane, in many cases aligning bone fragility with particular forms of insanity (namely, General Paralysis of the Insane). Although such research aimed to provide a medical explanation for the ‘fracture death’, it also called into question the value of pathological research and the utility of quantitative measurement in understanding mental disease.

The theoretical root of Karl Jaspers’ General Psychopathology. Part 1: Reconsidering the influence of phenomenology and hermeneutics (Tsutomu Kumazaki) 

The present paper investigates the methodology involved in Jaspers’ psychopathology and compares it with Husserl’s phenomenology and with Dilthey’s cultural science.Allgemeine Psychopathologie and other methodological works by Jaspers, the works of Husserl and Dilthey that Jaspers cited, and previous research papers on Jaspers are reviewed. Jaspers had conflicting views on understanding, which were comprised of both empathic understanding and rational, ideal-typical understanding. Such a standpoint on understanding is considerably different from Dilthey’s. Additionally, the present paper reconfirms that Jaspers’ ‘phenomenology’ as a form of descriptive psychology for the understanding of empirical psychic states is different from Husserl’s phenomenology. Thus, this paper casts doubt on the common opinion that Jaspers was under the profound influence of Husserl or Dilthey.

Classic Text No. 94

‘Struensée’s memoir on the situation of the King’ (1772): Christian VII of Denmark (Johan Schioldann)

Book Reviews

Book Review: E James Lieberman and Robert Kramer (eds), The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank: Inside Psychoanalysis (Christopher Harding) 

Book Review: Howard Padwa, Social Poison: The Culture and Politics of Opiate Control in Britain and France, 1821–1926 (Dan Malleck) 

Book Review: Angela McCarthy and Catharine Coleborne (eds), Migration, Ethnicity, and Mental Health. International Perspectives, 1840–2010 (Sarah York) 

Book Review: Luis Montiel, El Rizoma Oculto de la Psicología Profunda. Gustav Meyrink y Carl Gustav Jung (Olga Villasante)

Book Review: L Stephen Jacyna and Stephen T Casper (eds), The Neurological Patient in History (Rebecca Wynter) 

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A new issue of History of Psychiatry is now out and includes the following articles:

“Automatism, Surrealism and the making of French psychopathology: the case of Pierre Janet” (Alexandra Bacopoulos-Viau)

This article deals with the clinical use of ‘automatic writing’ by the French psychologist Pierre Janet at the fin de siècle and its later appropriation by Surrealist poets during the inter-war period. Of special interest are the acknowledged influences of Surrealism’s leading representative. Why did André Breton, in his mythical love affair with Freudianism, systematically silence his indebtedness to the Janetian model of the mind? In order to examine this question we turn to a little-studied theme: Janet’s increasing distance from Spiritism and psychical research. In seeking to establish his new discipline within a medical framework, Janet erected barriers between the psychological sciences and such seemingly ‘extra-scientific’ fields. In so doing, he placed himself at odds with other members of the intellectual community who saw in the automatic manifestations of the mind a source of exalted creativity.

“The nature of King James VI/I’s medical conditions: new approaches to the diagnosis” (Timothy Peters, Peter Garrard, Vijeya Ganesan, and John Stephenson)

It has been claimed that King James VI/I, an antecedent of King George III, suffered from acute porphyria, and that the disease was passed on to George III through his grand-daughter Sophie, mother of George I. The life of James is reviewed and previously-proposed diagnoses are considered. James’s medical history is discussed in detail and, where possible, examined with validated symptom scales. Using an online database of neurological diseases, the authors show that James’s symptomatology is compatible with a diagnosis of Attenuated (mild) Lesch-Nyhan disease; no evidence was found to support a diagnosis of acute porphyria. In addition, there is evidence of associated Asperger traits which may explain some of the King’s unusual behavioural and psycho-social features.

“Erwin Straus and the pathic” (LM Ratnapalan and David Reggio)

This paper details the significance of the ‘pathic’ mode of sensing in the work of Erwin Straus, through a consideration of its origins, etymology, and relationship with the research of his close contemporaries. The ‘pathic’ describes ‘the immediately present, sensually vivid, still pre-conceptual communication we have with appearances’. Straus came to a coherent understanding of its importance through his critique of Pavlov’s laboratory experiments on the conditioned reflex, which he then developed in phenomenological case studies where he further refined his anthropology. Not simply of relevance to the history of phenomenological psychology alone, the ‘pathic’ has an urgent contemporary implication in opposing the rise of what Straus presciently termed ‘mechanomorphic’ interpretations of human behaviour.

“‘Occasionally heard to be answering voices’: aural culture and the ritual of psychiatric audition, 1877–1911″ (Kathleen M Brian)

This essay argues that historians will gain a deeper understanding of the nosological ritual and the professionals who enacted it by placing internal developments of late nineteenth-century psychiatry alongside the synchronic rise of the linguistic sciences. Doing so demonstrates that, contrary to historical consensus, what fell out of favour were traditional methods of observation rather than the practice of classification itself. Through an analysis of the aural culture at St Elizabeths Hospital (Washington, DC) between 1877 and 1911 as evidenced by patient case files and diagnostic training manuals, I focus on shifting methods of psychiatric audition as primary sites of professional claims to legitimacy at a time when the specialty was under attack from critics both external and internal.

“English pauper lunatics in the era of the old poor law” (Edgar Miller)

Many of those considered to be insane in the past were regarded as paupers and so came within the ambit of the poor law. Little work has yet been published on the ways in which the poor law dealt with the psychologically disturbed during the era of the old poor law (c.1601–1834). The present paper outlines the old poor law which said very little about madness as a specific problem, with the general implication that they were to be dealt with in the same way as others considered to be in need of relief. It appears that this was generally the case with the exception that the insane were sometimes sent to asylums. They were also liable to be treated as vagrants. Some limitations and problems with primary sources are also noted.

“Freemasonry and psychiatry in Poland” (Tadeusz Nasierowski and Jonathan Britmann)

The history of Freemasonry in Poland is linked with the national independence movement. Masonic organizations supported its ideas, even though they were not always compliant with Masonic ethics. Polish Freemasonry was reborn in 1920, with an important role played by three psychiatrists: Rafał Radziwiłłowicz, Witold Łuniewski and Jan Mazurkiewicz, who were Grand Masters of the Grand National Lodge of Poland. Some of the ethical problems discussed at the lodge sessions were later reflected in their academic and social work. Mazurkiewicz’s work was most crucial to the development of Polish psychiatry. His presentation of the clinical picture of schizophrenia, formulated in the 1930s, was identical with the concept proposed by Andreasen and Crow in the 1980s.

“Extreme fasting among Daoist priestesses of the Tang Dynasty: an old Chinese variant of anorexia nervosa?” (Ann L Lo, LK George Hsu, and Walter Vandereycken)

Austere and prolonged fasting among Shangqing Daoist priestesses (Daogu) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) occurred as part of a lifestyle practice to achieve a mystical state of afterlife existence, body immortality and residence in the Shangqing heavenly kingdom. These fasting practices were conducted exclusively for religious reasons and cannot be reconceptualized as a form of an eating disorder without radically altering their original purpose and meaning.

“Varieties of psychiatric criticism” (Thomas Szasz)

I present a brief overview of the history of psychiatric criticism, followed by a critique of modern objections to diverse psychiatric practices, focusing on the critics’ neglect of the core problematic issue – the psychiatrist’s role in depriving innocent persons of liberty.

The issue also contains the classic psychiatric text “De la non-existence de la monomanie” by J.-P. Falret, commented by Thomas Lepoutre and Tom Dening, as well as book reviews of Andrew Scull’s Madness. A Very Short Introduction; Volker Roelcke, Paul Weindling and Louise Westwood (eds)’ International Relations in Psychiatry: Britain, Germany, and the United States to World War II; Katharine Hodgkin (ed.)’s Women, Madness and Sin in Early Modern England: The Autobiographical Writings of Dionys Fitzherbert; Linda V Carlisle’s Elizabeth Packard: A Noble Fight; and Angela Woods‘s The Sublime Object of Psychiatry: Schizophrenia in Clinical and Cultural Theory.

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