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SCIENTIFIC LOOK AT MENTAL ILLNESS:Philippe Pinel, Sameul Tuke

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History and Systems of Psychology ­ PSY502
VU
Lesson 28
SCIENTIFIC LOOK AT MENTAL ILLNESS
From ancient times, up to the middle of the 18th century, various explanations were given for mental illness;
for example according to the ancient man, mental illness was caused due to the malfunctioning of the soul
which was regarded as a person within a person. In middle ages, mental illness was thought to be caused by
evil spirits and mentally ill people were also considered to be possessed by the devil.
However, in the middle and end of the 18th century, as the outlook of man became more scientific and
rational, mental illness began to be regarded as nervous disease. This marked the beginning of a scientific
outlook towards mental diseases.
Let us go forward now. In the late 18th century in France, there was a wide spread increase in certain mental
diseases. Soon they were diagnosed and regarded as nervous diseases. In 1790 laws were made that
separation of patients suffering from nervous diseases is required, from those suffering from other diseases.
They were also separated from other criminals, thieves and robbers etc. Earlier, mentally ill people were
kept alongside criminals in prison. That was the beginning of the scientific outlook at mental disorders in
Europe, which soon spread throughout the continent.
Philippe Pinel
In 1792 a French physician Philippe Pinel, born 1745, died 1826, took a big step forward by taking
measures that led to freeing mentally sick people from chains from their feet and hand cuffs. After moving
to Paris in 1778, he was appointed (1793) as a director of a hospital. His book is based on observations in
the hospital, advocated humane treatment of mentally ill persons, and then called the insane, and a more
empirical study of mental disease. He further contributed to the development of psychiatry through his
establishment of the practice of keeping well-documented psychiatric case Therefore, Pinel is regarded as
the pioneer in helping society recognize the fact that mental symptoms are a kind of disease, and people
suffering from such disorders should be treated as sick and not considered to be possessed by evil spirits,
demons or the devil.
Sameul Tuke
The same kind of role was played by Sameul Tuke. Tuke was born on July 31, 1784 and died on October
14, 1857. He was born at York, England. He greatly advanced the cause of improving the condition of the
insane. His two sons were also active in humanitarian concerns.
He also freed mental patients from their chains and started to treat them as sick rather than possessed by
spirits, demons or the devil. By the late 19th century science had progressed so much that mental diseases
were regarded as belonging in the realm of diseases and a medical point of view toward their diagnosis and
treatment was adopted.
Franz Mesmer
During the same time mental diseases or insanity was being treated by a method called Mesmerism.
Mesmerism was based upon a method invented by a German physician Franz Mesmer who was born in
1734 and died in 1815. He studied in Vienna. His interest in "animal magnetism" developed into a system
of treatment through hypnotism that was called mesmerism. It seems now that Mesmer was actually treating
psychological illness, but an unsympathetic medical and scientific community caused him to be expelled first
from Vienna, and in 1778 from Paris. He retired to his native Austria and to obscurity.
According to Mesmer, people have a force that he called "animal magnetism," and when the balance of
animal magnetism gets upset in the body, people get mad or insane. Mesmer thought that animal magnetism
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History and Systems of Psychology ­ PSY502
VU
can be restored and in order to restore the upset balance Mesmer would touch the insane. By this he
thought he restored the balance of animal magnetism, so helping people to get well. Soon Mesmer's idea
and therapy became popular. People from different parts of the country came for treatment. When the
number of people increased, Mesmer used trees, bath tubs etc. to cater them all. He would dip his body into
the bath tub and people would then put their hands into the water to have their animal magnetism restored.
Gradually it was found that there was no such thing as animal magnetism and that he had no power to
restore animal magnetism. Mesmer fell into bad repute before he died. A British surgeon James Braid took
up the basic spirit of the idea.
James Braid
James Braid was a Scottish neurosurgeon who coined the term and invented the procedure known as
hypnotism. He was born in 1795 and died on March 25, 1860, at Fife. Educated at the University of
Edinburgh, Braid practiced in Scotland for a short time, and then moved to Manchester, England, where he
lived for the rest of his life. Braid became interested in mesmerism in 1841, when he observed
demonstrations given by a traveling mesmerist named Charles Lafontaine. In this book he coined the words
hypnotism, hypnotize, and hypnotist, which remain in use. Braid thought of hypnotism as producing a
"nervous sleep" which differed from ordinary sleep. The most efficient way to produce it was through visual
fixation on a small bright object held eighteen inches above and in front of the eyes. Braid regarded the
physiological condition underlying hypnotism to be the over-exercising of the eye muscles through the
straining of attention. Braid treated many people using hypnotism.
Jean Charcot
Jean Charcot was a French neurologist who was born in 1825 and died in 1893. He developed in Paris the
greatest clinician of his time for the diseases of nervous system. He made many important observations on
these diseases. He wrote an article in one of the prestigious medical journal showing that hypnotism can be
used to treat hysteria. Charcot's insight into the nature of hysteria is credited by Sigmund Freud, his pupil, as
having contributed to the early psychoanalytic formulations on the subject.
Bernheim
Bernheim was a French physician and neurologist who was born in 1840 and died in 1919. He received his
education in his native town and at the University of Strasbourg, where he was graduated as doctor of
medicine. The same year he became a lecturer at the university and established himself as physician in the
city. He had an influence on Sigmund Freud who visited him in 1889. Bernheim is also known as an
antagonist of his contemporary and fellow neurologist Jean Charcot. He showed that hypnotism can not
treat hysteria only but also other mental diseases.
So by the beginning of the 20th century mental diseases were seen as a part of medical diseases and
procedures were tested and adopted to treat them in a scientific manner. After World War II, ICD and
DSM came into being.
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION:Methodology, Grading, Course Overview up to Midterm
  2. ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY/PSYCHOLOGY:Socrates, Plato
  3. GREEK THINKERS:Aristotle, Contiguity, Contrast
  4. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 5TH TO 12TH CENTURY:Saint Augustine, Avicenna
  5. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 5TH TO 12TH CENTURY:Al-Ghazali, Ibn-Rushd, Averroes
  6. RENAISSANCE:Rene Descartes
  7. ASSOCIATIONISTS:Thomas Hobbes, John Locke
  8. ASSOCIATIONISTS:David Hume, FRENCH REVOLUTION, Denis Diderot
  9. GERMAN CONTRIBUTION:Wilhelm Liebniz, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Hegel
  10. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:RUSSIAN CONTRIBUTIONS
  11. RUSSIAN CONTRIBUTIONS:Ivan Pavlov, Reflex, Acquisition
  12. RUSSIAN CONTRIBUTIONS:Vladimir Bekhterev
  13. IMPACT OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES ON PSYCHOLOGY:Charles Darwin, Gustav Fechner
  14. STRUCTURALIST SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY:Wilhelm Wundt
  15. FUNCTIONALISM:William James, John Dewey
  16. EUROPEAN FUNCTIONALISTS:David Katz, Edgar Rubin, Jean Piaget
  17. BEHAVIORISM:Edward Lee Thorndike, Law of belongingness
  18. BEHAVIORISM:Albert Weiss, Edwin Holt, Learning, Canalization, Walter Hunter
  19. BEHAVIORISM:J.B.Watson
  20. NEO-BEHAVIOURISTS:Clark Hull, Edward Tolman, Edwin Gutherie
  21. NEO-BEHAVIORISTS:B.F. Skinner, Karl Lashley, Donald Hebb, Hobart Mowrer
  22. GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY:Max Wertheimer, Similarity, Proximity, Closure
  23. GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY:Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka, Edward De Bono
  24. GESTALT SCHOOL AND DYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGY:Kurt Lewin, DYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGY
  25. HISTORICO-EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY:Leon Vygotsky, Sergei Rubenstein
  26. HISTORICO-EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY:Alexei Leontiev, K.M Bykov
  27. SCIENTIFIC LOOK AT MENTAL DISORDERS
  28. SCIENTIFIC LOOK AT MENTAL ILLNESS:Philippe Pinel, Sameul Tuke
  29. SIGMUND FREUD AND THE PSYCHOANALYTIC MOVEMENT:The Superego
  30. SIGMUND FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYTICAL MOVEMENT:Anna Freud
  31. CARL JUNG AND ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY:Carl Gustav Jung
  32. JUNG’S ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY:Carl Gustav Jung
  33. ALFRED ADLER AND INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY:Alfred Adler
  34. NEO-FREUDIANS:Harry Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney
  35. NEO-FREUDIANS:Karen Horney, Erich Fromm
  36. ERIKSON and MORENO:J.L. Moreno, Protagonist, Audience, Role playing
  37. HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY:Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Positive Psychology
  38. MODERN TRENDS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT
  39. MODERN TRENDS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT:Biological Approaches
  40. ANTI-PSYCHIATRY MOVEMENT:D.L. Rosenhan, R.D. Laing, Aaron Esterson
  41. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE THIRD WORLD:Frantz Fanon
  42. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE THIRD WORLD CHINA AND PAKISTAN
  43. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 21st CENTURY
  44. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY:Consumer Psychology
  45. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY:Sports Psychology, Positive Psychology