quotations on madness 2

Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.


Voltaire.

Manfred Joshua Sakel

The Austrian psychiatrist Manfred Joshua Sakel began to experiment with insulin as a treatment for schizophrenia in 1933 (Braslow, 1999; Colp, 2000; Gask, 2004; Getz, 2009; Noll, 2007; Rollin, 2000; Shorter, 1997; Shorter, 2005; Szasz, 1994). He had previously used insulin in high doses to treat the agitation that was associated with withdrawal from morphine. Insulin was a relatively new treatment for anything, having only recently been isolated (Nicolae Paulescu of Rumania having patented his discovery in 1922 (Lica, 2008). Nevetheless, Sakel discovered that when it was administered to some schizophrenic patients (particularly those who were experiencing their first episode of psychosis) symptoms did abate, with a success rate of around 70 per cent (Sabbatini, n.d.). He published these results in 1934 and soon afterwards insulin coma therapy became a common treatment (Fink, n.d.). Basically it consisted of the induction of a hypoglycemic coma, which, theoretically at least, would shock the patient out of his madness. Even if the coma itself failed to work, sometimes patients experienced convulsions during the therapy, and this also appeared to be advantageous (in fact recent commentators aver that the convulsions were the chief source of therapeutic intervention rather than the drug itself (Shorter, 2005). It required several months of treatment, with highly trained staff, as one of the potential risks associated with it was death. Chronic schizophrenics did not benefit from the treatment at all. Nevertheless, when Sakel emigrated to the United States in 1937 (Shorter, 1997), he took with him this treatment, which continued to be used there for the next twenty years. Further studies by others determined that real cure was not achieved and that any improvement in mental state was, in most cases, only temporary (Sabbatini, n.d.).

Manfred Sakel

References:

Braslow, J. (1999). Where biopsychiatry came from: a short history of somatic therapies from 1900.  Harvard Mental Health Letter, 16, 2.

Colp, R.  (2000). History of psychiatry. In Sadock, B.J & Sadock, V.A. (eds.), Comprehensive text book of psychiatry. (7^th edition). Baltimore, MD.: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Fink, M. (n.d.). Insulin coma therapy. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash/filmmore/ps_ict.html

Gask, L. (2004). A short introduction to psychiatry. London, England: Sage Publications Ltd.

Getz, M.J. (2009). The ice-pick of oblivion: Moniz, Freeman and the development of psychosurgery. Trames 13, 2, 129-152.

Lica, M. (2008). The true inventor of insulin - Nicolae Paulescu. Retrieved from http://www.rounite.com/2008/09/12/nicolae-paulescu/

Noll, R. (2007). The encyclopedia of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. (3^rd edition). New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.

Rollin, H.R. (2000). Psychiatry at 2000: a bird’s eye view. Psychiatric Bulletin 24, 11-15.

Sabbatini, R.M.E (n.d.). The history of shock therapy in psychiatry. Retrieved from                 http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n04/historia/shock_i.htm

Shorter, E. (1997). A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Shorter, E. (2005). A historical dictionary of psychiatry. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Szasz, T. (1994). Cruel compassion: psychiatric control of society’s unwanted. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Zimri

According to the Bible, usurper to the throne of Israel, who committed suicide when his attempt to take the kingship failed (Comay, 1995; Evans & Farberow, 2003; Galpaz-Feller, 2006; Gardner, 1995; Tuke, 1892):

And it came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him with fire, and died”.

(1 Kings 16: 18, King James Bible)


References:


Comay, J. (1995). Who’s who in the Old Testament. London, England: Routledge.


Evans, G., & Farberow, N.L. (2003). The encyclopedia of suicide. New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.


Galpaz-Feller, P. (2006). ‘Let my soul die with the Philistines’ (Judges 16.30). Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 30.3, 315-325.


Gardner, P. (Ed.) (1995). The complete who’s who in the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.


Tuke, D.H. (1892). A dictionary of psychological medicine. Philadelphia, PA: P. Blakiston Son & Co.

Gotham

Many villages in England were mocked for the alleged stupidity or madness of their residents, but Gotham in Nottinghamshire exceeds all others in its reputation. A brief reference to the “foles of Gotham” appears in a 15^th century play, ‘The Wickirk Play’, whose author remains unknown (Earp, n.d.). Around 1540 further mention was made in the chapbook Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham (Simpson & Roud, 2000), written by ‘A.B. of Phisicke Doctor’, a collection of around twenty tales of madness exhibited by the villagers of Gotham (Stapleton, 1900). Some authorities have deemed that this anonymous author was in fact one Andrew Borde, a popular humorist and writer of the time, although Borde himself never confirmed nor denied that he was the author. Whoever wrote the chapbook appears to have merely collected into one volume a series of stories about the men of Gotham, all of which may have predated the chapbook itself, with at least one story dating back to the 12^th century (Earp, n.d.). This concerns King John, who was making his way towards Nottingham (Clouston, 1888; Halliwell, 1840; Stapleton, 1900), with his route taking him directly through land owned by the village of Gotham. At this time it was believed that wherever the King made his way would become a public highway. The people of Gotham did not want to pay for the upkeep of the new King’s Highway, and, as madness was said to be contagious, when the King’s herald arrived in the village and found the inhabitants engaged in various acts of apparent insanity, the news soon reached the ears of the king. As a result John changed direction to avoid the village of ‘mad men’. A second version of the story also concerns King John, who was about to build a hunting lodge or castle near Gotham. Again, his herald visits the village to find the villagers apparently mad, resulting again in a change of plans for the king. Another story tells of a man who carried his sacks of grain around his own neck while still riding his horse - the idea being to relieve the animal of the extra burden of the weight of the sacks (Halliwell, 1840; Stapleton, 1900). In all the stories the question remains whether the villagers of Gotham were really mad or idiotic, or whether they merely feigned madness in order to further their own ends.

The original Merry Tales of the Mad-Men of Gotham

References:


Clouston, W.A. (1888). The book of noodles: Stories of simpletons; or, fools and their follies. London, England: Elliot Stock.

Earp, F.E. (n.d.). The wise men of Gotham. Retrieved from http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/Gotham1.htm

Halliwell, J.O. (1840). The merry tales of the wise men of Gotham. London: John Russell Smith. Retrieved from http://www.presscom.co.uk/gotham.html

Simpson, J., & Roud, S. (2000). A dictionary of English folklore. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Stapleton, A. (1900). All about the merry tales of Gotham. Nottingham, England: R.N. Pearson.

madness in ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians wrote about problems of mental health as early as 1550 B.C.E. (Hills, 1901), as witnessed by the Ebers (dated to the reign of Amenhotep I, 1525-1504 B.C.E., and discovered by the German Egyptologist Georg Ebers in 1873 (Bunson, 2002; Nunn, 1996)) and Edwin Smith papyri (Nasser, 1987). The latter gives the first known written description of the meninges, cerebrospinal fluid,  and convolutions of the brain (Missios, 2007; Nunn, 1996), whereas the former describes conditions that appear to be equivalent to hysteria, alcoholism, depression (Nasser, 1987) and schizophrenia (Kyziridis, 2005), although they were seen as varieties of physical illness rather than mental phenomena (Stone, 2006). Treatments for these disorders included the application of bodily fluids while reciting magic spells (Bunson, 2002), the use of hallucinogens as therapeutic medications, and voluntary retreat in temples (similar to the idea of asylum nearly three millennia later). Interestingly there appears to be no mention of madness as a manifestation of spirit possession, as in other cultures, despite Dercum’s assertion to the contrary (Dercum, 1918), although successful treatment was largely attributed to the wearing of amulets or the intercession of the gods (Darton, 1999; Regis, 1894). In fact, disorders of the mind could be attributed to heart problems, as the two were identical in Egyptian thought (Kyziridis, 2005). The French psychiatrist Pinel reinforces these ideas in his "Nosographie philosophique", II (1798), stating that sufferers of melancholy (roughly equivalent to the modern idea of depression) were treated in temples with “suggestion, diversion of mind, and recreations of all kinds, by a careful regimen, by hydropathy, and by pilgrimages to the holy places” (Walsh, 1910). The chief place of “psychiatric” treatment appears to have been the temple of Imhotep in Memphis, which came into being as early as 2850 B.C.E. (Darton, 1999). The Greeks later identified Imhotep with Asclepios, god of medicine (Bierbrier, 2008; Bunson, 2002; Hart, 1986; Nunn, 1996).

The Edwin Smith papyrus

Imhotep, the ancient Egyptian "god" of healing

References:

Bierbrier, M.L. (2008). Historical dictionary of ancient Egypt. Plymouth, England: Scarecrow Press Inc.

Bunson, M. (2002). Encyclopedia of ancient Egypt. New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.

Darton, K. (1999). Notes on the history of mental health care. Mind: London. Retrieved from http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Factsheets/History+of+mental+health/Notes+on+the+History+of+Mental+Health+Care.htm

Dercum, F.X. (1918). A clinical manual of mental diseases. (2^nd edition).  Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders Company.

Hart, G. (1986). A dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Routledge.

Hills, F.L. (1901). Psychiatry – ancient, medieval and modern. The Popular Science Monthly 59, 3, 31-48.

Kyziridis, T.C. (2005). Notes on the history of schizophrenia. German Journal of Psychiatry 8 (4): 42-8.

Missios, S. (2007). Hippocrates, Galen, and the uses of trepanation in the ancient classical world. Neurosurgery Focus 23, 1, 1-9.

Nasser, M. (1987). Psychiatry in ancient Egypt. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 11 (12): 420-422.

Nunn, J.F. (1996). Ancient Egyptian medicine. London, England: British Museum Press.

Regis, E. (1894). A practical manual of mental medicine. (2nd edition). Utica, NT: American Journal of Insanity.

Stone, M.H. (2006). History of schizophrenia and its antecedents. In Lieberman, J.A., Stroup, T.S., & Perkins, D.O. The American Psychiatric Publishing textbook of schizophrenia. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.

Walsh, J.J. (1910). Asylums and Care for the Insane. In The Catholic encyclopedia. New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved frrom http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08038b.htm

Nebuchadnezzar

Babylonian king (reigned 605-562 B.C.E.) (Byers, 1998) who built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Comay, 1995; Gardner, 1995), and who was punished for his pride and vanity by being afflicted with a mental disorder akin to the modern concept of lycanthropy (Durante, 2006; Garlipp, Godecke-Koch, Dietrich & Haltenhof, 2004; Hays, 2007; Krafft-Ebbing, 1903; Souvay, 1911; Stone, 2006; Tischler, 2006; Tuke, 1892), believing for seven years that he had been turned into an ox (Daniel 4:33, King James Bible):

The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.

This is archaeologically confirmed by the discovery of a bronze door-step, which bears an inscription stating that it was presented by Nebuchadnezzar to the temple at Borsippa as an offering because of his recovery from illness. Unfortunately his recovery was not long-lived, as he died a year later (Tabouis & Hanotaux, 1931).

Nebuchadnezzar by William Blake (date unknown)

References:

Byers, P.K. (Ed.) (1998). Encyclopedia of world biography. (2nd edition). Detroit, MI: Gale Research.

Comay, J. (1995). Who’s who in the Old Testament. London, England: Routledge.

Durante, C. (2006). On the existence of werewolves. Philosophy Now 57, 22-24.

Gardner, P. (Ed.) (1995). The complete who’s who in the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Garlipp, P., Godecke-Koch, T., Dietrich, D.E., & Haltenhof, H. (2004). Lycanthropy – psychopathological and psychodynamical aspects. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 109: 19–22.

Hays, C.B. (2007). Chirps from the dust: the affliction of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:30 in its ancient Near Eastern context.  Journal of Biblical Literature 126, 2, 305-325.

Krafft-Ebbing, R. von (1903). Textbook of insanity: Based on clinical observations. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.

Souvay, C. (1911). Nabuchodonosor. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10666c.htm

Stone, M.H. (2006). History of schizophrenia and its antecedents. In Lieberman, J.A., Stroup, T.S., & Perkins, D.O. The American Psychiatric Publishing textbook of schizophrenia. Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.

Tabouis, G.R., & Hanotaux, G. (1931). Nebuchadnezzar. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing.

Tischler, N.M. (Ed.) (2006). All things in the Bible. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.

Tuke, D.H. (1892). A dictionary of psychological medicine. Philadelphia, PA: P. Blakiston Son & Co.

Elizabeth Packard

(1816-97) wife of an American preacher (Albrecht, 2006; Burch, 2009; Dain, 1989; Levison, 2003). After years of marriage she began to question her husband’s Calvinist beliefs, and argued with about this and other matters, including how their children would be brought up, family finances, and the issue of slavery. In 1860 her husband decided that she as becoming insane and decided to have her committed to an asylum. This was legally possible at the time, and was the one exception to a law that stated that no person could be committed to an insane asylum without a public hearing. A Dr. Brown interviewed Elizabeth, but used trickery in doing so, disguising himself as a sewing machine salesman. He reported his findings back to Mr. Packard, who arranged for her committal on 18 June 1860. She spent the next three years at the Illinois State Hospital at Jacksonville. She was discharged as incurably insane in 1863, and on returning to the family home, her clothes were confiscated by her husband, who also had her boarded into her bedroom. This was illegal. Elizabeth managed to communicate her imprisonment to a friend and a writ of habeas corpus was issued. The resulting trial called numerous witnesses who testified that they never saw Elizabeth exhibit any signs of insanity, while discussing religion or otherwise. The jury found in Elizabeth’s favour (taking only seven minutes to come to this decision), she was declared sane and allowed to go. She never returned to the family home, and while they did not divorce, the couple remained separated for the rest of their lives. As a result of her experiences Elizabeth Packard founded the Anti-Insane Asylum Society and published several books, including Marital Power Exemplified, or Three Years Imprisonment for Religious Belief (1864), Great Disclosure of Spiritual Wickedness in High Places (1865), The Mystic Key or the Asylum Secret Unlocked (1866), and The Prisoners' Hidden Life, Or Insane Asylums Unveiled (1868) (Burch, 2009).

Elizabeth Packard

References:

Albrecht, G.L. (Ed.) (2006). Encyclopedia of disability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

Burch, S. (Ed.) (2009). Encyclopedeia of American disability history. New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.

Dain, N. (1989). Critics and dissenters: reflections on "anti-psychiatry” in the United States. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 25, 3-25.

Levison, J.R. (2003). Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard: an advocate for cultural, religious and legal change. Alabama Law Review 53:3, 987-1077.

musical madness 2

"Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues" by the Kinks, from their 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies.

Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues

stone of madness

A curious belief held by some in the Middle Ages was that madness was caused by a “stone of madness” situated anywhere in the body, but most commonly in the head (Babiloni, Babiloni, Carducci, Cincotti & Rossini, 2003; Sabbatini, 1997; Shorter, 1997; Thackery & Harris, 2003). This stone could be removed by surgery, and so it was that many quack healers roamed Europe performing sham operations on the mentally ill, removing the stone, and affecting a cure, which, presumably, was very short-lived. A painting of the procedure was completed between 1475 and 1480 by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (Palmer, 2008), (c. 1450-1516), and other artists of the period followed suit (Gross, 1999).

The Extraction of the Stone of Madness by Hieronymus Bosch

Cutting out the Stone of Madness, by Pieter Bruegel

Excising the Stone of Folly by Pieter Huys

References:

Babiloni, F., Babiloni, C., Carducci, F., Cincotti F., & Rossini, P.M. (2003). ‘The stone of madness’ and the search for the cortical sources of brain diseases with non-invasive EEG techniques. Clinical Neurophysiology 114: 1775–1780.

Gross, C.G. (1999). ‘Psychosurgery’ in Renaissance art. Trends in Neuroscience 22, 429-431.

Palmer, J. (2008). The stone of madness. Retrieved from http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2008/08/the_stone_of_madness.php

Sabbatini, R.M.E (1997). The history of psychosurgery. Retrieved from http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/psicocirg_i.htm

Shorter, E. (1997). A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Thackery, E., & Harris, M. (Eds.) (2003). The Gale encyclopedia of mental disorders. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, Inc.

Soranus of Ephesus

(c. 98-138), a physician who practised medicine in the town of his birth, recommended that people suffering from mania should be treated with the alkaline waters of his town (Darton, 1999; Thompson, 2006). These waters contained high levels of lithium salts, and the therapeutic use of lithium salts was rediscovered by John Cade, an Australian psychiatrist, in the 1940s (Colp, 2000; Rush, 1988; Shorter, 1997). Soranus felt that madmen in general should be housed in light and airy conditions (Kyziridis, 2005), that corporal punishment should not be part of therapy, and that the patient’s social environment had to be understood to gain a comprehensive assessment of the condition. Soranus also described delirium (Vinken, Bruyn, Klawans & Frederiks, 1985), hysterical suffocation (Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008), phrenitis, lethargy, mania, melancholy and homosexuality in both sexes as an “affliction of a diseased mind” (Mendelson, 2003). He recognised that on occasion restraint was necessary, but urged that it should be with the use of soft bindings that did not injure the patient (Millon, 2004). Soranus believed that the way to cure mentally ill patients was to put them into peaceful surroundings and have them read, discuss, and participate in the production of plays in order to create order in their thinking and offset their depression (Cockerham, 2000). Furthermore he felt it was not of therapeutic value to disagree with a madman’s delusions, but thought that gradual persuasion around to reality was of much more benefit (Nutton, 2004).

Soranus of Ephesus

References:

Cockerham, W. C. (2000). Sociology of mental disorder. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice Hall.

Colp, R. (2000). History of psychiatry. In Sadock, B.J & Sadock, V.A. (eds.), Comprehensive text book of psychiatry. (7^th edition). Baltimore, MD.: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

Darton, K. (1999). Notes on the history of mental health care. Mind: London. Retrieved from http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Factsheets/History+of+mental+health/Notes+on+the+History+of+Mental+Health+Care.htm

Keyser, P.T., & Irby-Massey, G.L. (2008). The encyclopedia of ancient natural scientists: the Greek tradition and its many heirs. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kyziridis, T.C. (2005). Notes on the history of schizophrenia. German Journal of Psychiatry 8 (4): 42-8.

Mendelson, G. (2003). Homosexuality and psychiatric nosology. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 37: 678-683.

Millon, T. (2004). Masters of the mind: Exploring the story of mental illness from ancient times to the new millennium. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Nutton, V. (2004). Ancient medicine. New York, NY: Routledge.

Rush, A.J. (1988). Clinical diagnosis of mood disorders. Clinical Chemistry 34, 5: 813-821.

Shorter, E. (1997). A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Thompson, M.L. (2006). Mental illness (Health and medical issues today). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Vinken, P.J., Bruyn, G.W., Klawans, H.L., & Frederiks, J.A.M. (Eds.) (1985). Neurobehavioural disorders. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.