History of psychiatry

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Last update: Saturday, 30 Jan 2021 at 12.11 pm.

The term psychiatry, composed of the words soul (psyche) and physician (iatrós), was first used by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808, but the psychiatric illnesses of today's understanding are one of the first to be described.

Development of Psychiatry in individual epoches[edit | edit source]

Antiquity[edit | edit source]

The solution to the problems at the time was very closely connected with philosophy and religion (hence the term "mental disorders").

  • Ebersův papyrus – 1550 BC, one of the oldest medical documents, describes depression.
  • Bible - eg King Saul (11th century BC) had depression, bipolar disorder and music therapy is the first to be described (David plays the lyre).

Antika[edit | edit source]

The explanation for mental disorders focused on organic origin.

  • Hippokrates
    • argued that mental illness is caused by a brain disorder,
    • looked for anatomical causes, the effect of body fluid imbalance; the treatise "On the Divine Illness" - epilepsy has, according to him, supernatural causes
  • Galen - argued that mental illness can be caused by direct brain damage or in response to damage to another part of the body.

Medieval[edit | edit source]

After the fall of the Roman Empire, there was a decline in humanity and science in Europe. The rise of Christianity and its attitude toward the world as a perfect work of God that need not be studied also had a certain effect. In the Arab world, where facilities for the mentally ill have been established since the 9th century, Avicenna was mainly involved in psychiatry.

  • Codex Theodosianus (Theodosian's Code, 438 AD) - condemns magic, suggests punishing the obsessed, witches and wizards, and deals with mental disorders;
  • 1247 - The Royal Bethlehem Hospital is founded, the first facility for the mentally ill in Europe
  • 1486 - Publication of the "Malleus maleficarum" (Witch's Hammer) - a work defending witch hunts (often referred to as mentally ill women).

Modern age[edit | edit source]

During the Renaissance, the mentally ill were referred to by the Inquisition as "possessed by the devil" and subsequently persecuted, tortured and burned. However, some thinkers have tried to change their approach (Thomas Moore, F. Bacon,…).

  • Johann Weyer (16th century) - the physician who was the first to oppose the persecution of witches, wrote the work De prestigiis daemonum; this is the first psychiatric revolution.
  • 1755 - Maria Theresa repeals the Witchcraft Act (although several burns occurred in the 19th century).

The Enlightenment era brought about a real reform of psyche care, psychiatric hospitals were established, theories of the causes of diseases were explored, etc.

  • 1784 - Establishment of the "Narrenturm" (Tower of Fools), the first special ward for the mentally ill in Austria-Hungary (Vienna).
  • 1790 - today's VFN was founded together with the Institute for the Mentally Ill (Custodiae mente captorum), in German "Tollhaus" (madhouse)
  • Philippe Pinel (18th century) - transformed the Bicêtre prison and the Salpêtrière prison into mental hospitals with real care (psychotherapy, psychodrama, regime therapy), a period of the so-called second psychiatric revolution.

19th century[edit | edit source]

  • Since 1821, "disease-mindedness" has been taught.
  • Later moved to the Augustinian monastery at the church of St. Kateřiny - Institute for the Mentally Kingdom of Bohemia.

20th century[edit | edit source]

  • Baden-Baden - A group of psychiatrists developed descriptions and terminology.
  • Nobel Prize in Malaria Therapy of Progressive Paralysis (syphilis - Julius Wagner von Jauregg[1].
  • Nobel Prize in Leukotomy - Egas Moniz[1].
  • Discovery of electroconvulsion and implementation - Lucio Bini and Ugo Cerletti
  • 1952 - Successful use of chlorpromazine in psychotic patients, originally developed as an antihistamine
  • Development of psychiatry with illumination of molecular mechanisms, imaging methods and genetic basis of diseases - the third psychiatric revolution[1].
  • During the period of Nazi and Communist rule, even at the cost of a distorted or accentuated diagnosis, psychiatry "saved" the political victims of the regime (it made them more affected than having to be punished).
  • The impact of communism on psychiatry in the Czech Republic:
    • emphasis on Pavlov's teachings in the theory of the origin of all mental disorders
    • biological focus, limitation of integration with psychotherapy.

Directions of Psychiatry[edit | edit source]

Biological[edit | edit source]

  • Neuroscientific, rather neurology (1861 - Broca's areas, etc.).
  • Emil Kraepelin - head of psychiatry in Vienna (at that time Alzheimer, Nissl, etc., also worked there), founded the classification of major mental disorders.
  • Other discoveries: Alzheimer's - plaques and neurofibrils.
  • Wagner-Jaurreg: treatment of progressive malaria paralysis.
  • 1927 - Sakel: treatment of schizophrenia with insulin comas.
  • 1938 - Cerletti and Bini: electroconvulsive therapy (EKT, ECT).
  • Development of psychotropic drugs

Psychological[edit | edit source]

  • Emphasis on factors influencing personality development.
  • Efforts to derive the emergence of diseases from disorders of personality development from birth and from overcoming certain nodal points of development.
  • Main and first - Freud's psychoanalysis, ignorance.
  • Antipsychiatry


Links[edit | edit source]

Used literature[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

https://www.wikiskripta.eu/w/Historie_psychiatrie

  1. a b c Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Raboch