The more I read about psychiatry, the more I realized the importance of its history. Many of the problems besetting the discipline today - such as the definition of specific illnesses, the criteria for diagnoses, the lack of clear biological markers, the mind/brain problem - were prominent from the beginning. Moreover, while the particulars have changed, the intensity of the arguments has not. Learning about the origins of modern psychiatry in the nineteenth century helps us understand its concepts and terminology. We also gain perspective on contemporary issues. After chronicling the formative years, I devote a lengthy final chapter to evaluating nineteenth century achievements in light of current knowledge.
A central theme of the book is the scientific outlook of psychiatry’s early actors. Wilhelm Griesinger and Karl Kahlbaum were influential spokesmen for the new empirical approach while Bernard Gudden, Franz Nissl and Emil Kraepelin spent as much time - or more - in the laboratory as they did in the clinic. Gudden and Nissl were brain anatomists, Kraepelin an experimental psychologist. In addition to these men, I tell the stories of Philippe Pinel, Jean-Etienne Esquirol, Benjamin Rush, Johann Heinroth, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Sigmund Freud, and many others.
232 pages, 30 illustrations
Available from Amazon and Logos Verlag
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A central theme of the book is the scientific outlook of psychiatry’s early actors. Wilhelm Griesinger and Karl Kahlbaum were influential spokesmen for the new empirical approach while Bernard Gudden, Franz Nissl and Emil Kraepelin spent as much time - or more - in the laboratory as they did in the clinic. Gudden and Nissl were brain anatomists, Kraepelin an experimental psychologist. In addition to these men, I tell the stories of Philippe Pinel, Jean-Etienne Esquirol, Benjamin Rush, Johann Heinroth, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Sigmund Freud, and many others.
232 pages, 30 illustrations
Available from Amazon and Logos Verlag
Buying from Logos Verlag is the cheapest and fastest way to order from North America.
Chapter titles
Introduction
1 Institutional Reforms
2 Cutting Nature at its Joints
3 Mind, Brain or Both?
4 A New Vision for Psychiatry
5 Bernhard Gudden at the Upper Bavarian District Mental Hospital
6 The Tragic Deaths of the King and the Professor
7 A Mismatched Pair of Rising Stars
8 Experimental Psychology
9 Kraepelin and Nissl in Heidelberg
10 A Very Complex Thing
11 Seeing is Believing, or Maybe Not
12 Mind-Altering Drugs and Disease-Causing Poisons
13 Psychosis
14 Dementia praecox
15 A Classification for the Twentieth Century
16 Nineteenth Century Psychiatry Today and in the Future
1 Institutional Reforms
2 Cutting Nature at its Joints
3 Mind, Brain or Both?
4 A New Vision for Psychiatry
5 Bernhard Gudden at the Upper Bavarian District Mental Hospital
6 The Tragic Deaths of the King and the Professor
7 A Mismatched Pair of Rising Stars
8 Experimental Psychology
9 Kraepelin and Nissl in Heidelberg
10 A Very Complex Thing
11 Seeing is Believing, or Maybe Not
12 Mind-Altering Drugs and Disease-Causing Poisons
13 Psychosis
14 Dementia praecox
15 A Classification for the Twentieth Century
16 Nineteenth Century Psychiatry Today and in the Future
Reviews
``Ronald Chase has provided fascinating information about the 19th century scientists' thinking on behavioral disorders: how to identify them, how to treat them, how to understand them . . . He is a terrific writer and has compiled very interesting stories that bring to life the thinking of the time and the condition of serious mental illnesses in their first stages of understanding . . . The author weaves the work of the 20th to 21st centuries nicely into his story . . . gives optimism for a brain-based understanding in the future.''
Carol Tamminga, M.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
“It adds ‘flesh’ to psychiatric history by describing the lives, personalities and work of individuals. This is good, as most of us have been brought up on British and French psychiatry and are rather ignorant of the German contribution . . . The book is full of unusual snippets of information . . . Chase writes clearly about the evolution of diagnosis from phrenology to physiognomy, masturbatory insanity, etc., to the modern Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) . . . Numerous key people are named for their role in the development of our psychiatric discipline . . . There are good descriptions of the meticulous work of Emil Kraepelin, Franz Nissl (who didn’t like ties), Karl Kahlbaum, Wilhelm Wundt, and so on . . . The last chapter is thought provoking as it deals with the philosophy of psychiatry, including the loose criteria for diagnosing schizophrenia, and discusses the shortfalls of diagnostic criteria of various manuals.”
Milton Roxanas, writing in Australasian Psychiatry
"This book sets the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of psychiatry into the frame of the people exploring the subject, their daily lives, philosophical ideas and professional encounters, mainly in German-speaking lands in the 19th century . . . This lively book tells a story of people, events and discoveries . . . The book is well written . . . It will be thought provoking for anyone trying to understand the many questions of diagnosis and aetiology in 21st century psychiatric practice. Many of the dilemmas raised over a century ago are evocative of those today, particularly the relationship between bipolar disease and schizophrenia, as Chase discusses in his final chapter."
Claire Hilton, writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry
Carol Tamminga, M.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
“It adds ‘flesh’ to psychiatric history by describing the lives, personalities and work of individuals. This is good, as most of us have been brought up on British and French psychiatry and are rather ignorant of the German contribution . . . The book is full of unusual snippets of information . . . Chase writes clearly about the evolution of diagnosis from phrenology to physiognomy, masturbatory insanity, etc., to the modern Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) . . . Numerous key people are named for their role in the development of our psychiatric discipline . . . There are good descriptions of the meticulous work of Emil Kraepelin, Franz Nissl (who didn’t like ties), Karl Kahlbaum, Wilhelm Wundt, and so on . . . The last chapter is thought provoking as it deals with the philosophy of psychiatry, including the loose criteria for diagnosing schizophrenia, and discusses the shortfalls of diagnostic criteria of various manuals.”
Milton Roxanas, writing in Australasian Psychiatry
"This book sets the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of psychiatry into the frame of the people exploring the subject, their daily lives, philosophical ideas and professional encounters, mainly in German-speaking lands in the 19th century . . . This lively book tells a story of people, events and discoveries . . . The book is well written . . . It will be thought provoking for anyone trying to understand the many questions of diagnosis and aetiology in 21st century psychiatric practice. Many of the dilemmas raised over a century ago are evocative of those today, particularly the relationship between bipolar disease and schizophrenia, as Chase discusses in his final chapter."
Claire Hilton, writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry