Neopositivism and the DSM psychiatric classification. An epistemological history. Part 1: Theoretical comparison
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 ...
Source: History of Psychiatry - May 20, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Aragona, M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
From psychiatric symptom to diagnostic category: self-harm from the Victorians to DSM-5
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? (Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - May 20, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Gilman, S. L. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Ergotism in Norway. Part 2: The symptoms and their interpretation from the eighteenth century onwards
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-centu...
Source: History of Psychiatry - May 20, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Alm, T., Elvevag, B. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Retrospective diagnosis and its vicissitudes
(Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Berrios, G. Tags: News and Notes Source Type: research
Book Review: Michelle Faubert, Anita O'Connell, David Walker (eds), Depression and Melancholy
(Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Houston, R. Tags: Book Reviews Source Type: research
Book Review: Heather R Beatty, Nervous Disease in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain: The Reality of a Fashionable Disorder
(Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Rabin, D. Tags: Book Reviews Source Type: research
Book Review: Nicholas Tromans, Richard Dadd: The Artist and the Asylum
(Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Park, M. Tags: Book Reviews Source Type: research
Book Review: Kathrin Lieb, Split-Brain-Forschung und ihre Folgen. Medizin - Geschichte - Popularwissenschaft
(Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Matusall, S. Tags: Book Reviews Source Type: research
Book Review: RA Houston, Punishing the Dead? Suicide, Lordship, and Community in Britain, 1500-1830
(Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Snell, E. Tags: Book Reviews Source Type: research
'On the Diseases of the Head' in the Scale of Medicine by Muhammad Akbar Arzani [d. 1722]
This Classic Text examines the Mizan-e Tibb (Scale of Medicine), an influential medical text by Muhammad Akbar Arzani which circulated widely throughout South Asia. The success of Arzani’s text rests in its simple prose and the translation of Graeco-Arabic medical knowledge into Persian, the language of educated discourse throughout South Asia. His chapter ‘Dar Amrad-e Ras’ (On the Diseases of the Head) presents the classification and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders within South Asian, Islamic medicine. The excerpt below is taken from a critically edited text published in 2001 in Iran. (Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Aggarwal, N. K. Tags: Classic Text No. 93 Source Type: research
Use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration
During the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, there was much discussion on the role of alcohol. The explorers expected to be able to consume alcohol, and the expeditions were supported by companies producing alcoholic beverages that used the Antarctic connection in their advertising. On the other side, it was said (incorrectly) than Fridjof Nansen, perhaps the most famous of the Arctic explorers, had taken no alcohol and this was used in the arguments against alcohol by the temperance movement. In general, alcohol consumption was low but it was felt that alcohol played an important role in maintaining the psychological w...
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Guly, H. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
'Paralysed with fears and worries': neurasthenia as a gender-specific disease of civilization
Around 1900 neurasthenia received much attention in both the medical world and society at large. Based on professional publications by Dutch psychiatrists and neurologists and on patient records from the Rhijngeest sanatorium near Leiden in the Netherlands, this article addresses the meanings and interpretations of this nervous disorder as put forward by doctors and patients. We argue that their understanding of this disorder was determined not only by medical views, but also by social-cultural factors and prevailing gender norms. (Source: History of Psychiatry)
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Slijkhuis, J., Oosterhuis, H. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
William James and psychical research: towards a radical science of mind
Traditional textbooks on the history of psychiatry and psychology fail to recognize William James’s investigations on psychic phenomena as a legitimate effort to understand the human mind. The purpose of this paper is to offer evidence of his views regarding the exploration of those phenomena as well as the radical, yet alternative, solutions that James advanced to overcome theoretical and methodological hindrances. Through an analysis of his writings, it is argued that his psychological and philosophical works converge in psychical research revealing the outline of a science of mind capable of encompassing psychic p...
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Sech Junior, A., de Freitas Araujo, S., Moreira-Almeida, A. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Psychopathology beyond semiology. An essay on the inner workings of psychopathology
This text develops three interwoven issues: first, a succinct comparative analysis of medical and psychiatric semiology, which proposes that the lack of referring relations between psychiatric symptoms and brain/psychic dysfunction is a fundamental distinction between medical and psychiatric semiology. Second, the multiple features of psychiatric semiology are reviewed. Third, a new approach to psychopathology is introduced, proposing three different ways to shape symptoms (perception, linguistic structure, praxis); highlighting its role as a cognitive activity that creates intelligibility from undifferentiated experiences...
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Rejon Altable, C., Dening, D. T. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
Revisiting mental hygiene: Josef Lundahl's interpretation of modern psychiatry in Sweden at the beginning of the twentieth century
The concept of mental hygiene is historically intertwined with eugenics and what it meant both ideologically and for the care of the mentally ill. A closer investigation of the concept and of the historical context shows that different interpretations existed simultaneously. The aim of this essay is to highlight the literary and scientific works of a Swedish psychiatrist, Josef Lundahl, an advocate of the mental hygiene concept. A close reading of his texts is used to provide an example of how the concept of mental hygiene was understood by a psychiatrist and practitioner of mental hygiene. The practice of child-care and o...
Source: History of Psychiatry - February 19, 2013 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Piuva, K. Tags: Articles Source Type: research
