Aulus Cornelius Celsus

(25 B.C.E – 50 A.D.), Roman encyclopaedist (Byers, 1998), who gave descriptions of epileptic madness, phrenitis (where inflammation of the brain resulted in psychic phenomena), hysteria, mania and melancholia (in which he recognised the insomnia and anorexia that can be concomitant with depression (Cule, 1997)), as well as an illness that was found in younger people and was accompanied by visual and auditory hallucinations (a situation that has been associated with the modern idea of schizophrenia (Stone, 2006)). He believed that some mental illnesses were due to intervention by the gods and he is also one of the first writers to indicate that the moon had an influence on mental illness (Cox, 1806), a condition that came to be called lunacy. Although not a physician himself, Celsus gathered extensive writings from the Greeks, translated them into Latin, and compiled them into an encyclopaedia entitled De artibus (A.D. 25-35) (Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008). Originally this contained five books on agriculture, and other books of unknown length on military science, government, history, law, philosophy, rhetoric, and medicine (Byers, 1998; Smith, 1870). The only books to survive, however, were The Eight Books of Medicine, or De medicina octo libri, the most comprehensive medical history and detailed description of medical and surgical procedures ever produced by a Roman writer (Elliott, 1914; Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008; Moulton, 1998; Smith, 1870), and one of the first medical books to be printed (Byers, 1998). Celsus’ contribution to medicine was considered so important, that, in later times, Paracelsus took his adopted name to mean “better than Celsus’ (Byers, 1998). As far as treatment methods for mental disturbance is concerned, Celsus recommended starvation, fetters and flogging (which continued as a treatment until modern times (Tuke, 1882)) and anything 'which thoroughly agitates the spirit' (Bucknill & Tuke, 1858; Darton, 1999; Hills, 1901; Hinshaw, 2007; Kyziridis, 2005; Porter, 2002; Regis, 1894).

Aulus Cornelius Celsus

References:

Bucknill, J.C., & Tuke, D.H. (1858). A manual of psychological medicine. Philadelphia, PA: Blanchard & Lea.

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

Cox, J.M. (1806). Practical observations on insanity. (2^nd edition). London, England: C. & R. Baldwin.

Cule, J. (1997). The devil’s apples. Vesalius, III, 2, 95 -105.

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

Elliott, J.S. (1914). Outlines of Greek and Roman medicine. New York, NY: William Wood & Company.

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

Hinshaw, S.P.  (2007). The mark of shame: stigma of mental illness and an agenda for change. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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.

Moulton, C. (Ed.) (1998). Ancient Greece and Rome: an encyclopedia for students. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Porter, R. (2002). Madness: a brief history. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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

Smith, W. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.

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.

Tuke, D.H. (1882). Chapters in the history of the insane in the British Isles. London, England: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.

David

The second king of Israel, who succeeded Saul, and famous for his slaying of the giant Goliath (Carson & Cerrito, 2003). He is the first person recorded to have used music therapy in the treatment of madness (Gardner, 1995; Hills, 1901; Tischler, 2006; Tuke, 1892), playing his harp to soothe Saul’s madness: 

          And it came to pass, when the [evil] spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and  

          played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. 

          (1 Samuel 16:23, King James Bible).

Saul listening to David playing the harp by Erasmus Quellinus

Later David himself feigned madness in order to escape from Saul (1 Samuel 21:10-15, King James Bible), who had come to develop a paranoid fear of David (Comay, 1995; Conolly, 1850; Gardner, 1995; Krafft-Ebbing, 1903; Stone, 1997; Tuke, 1892):

          And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the 

          servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to 

          another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? And 

          David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. And he 

          changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the 

          doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, 

          ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need of mad men, that ye 

          have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?

References:

Carson, T., & Cerrito, J. (Eds.) (2003). New Catholic encyclopedia (2^nd edition). Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group Inc.

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

Conolly, J. (1850). Familiar views of lunacy and lunatic life: with hints on the personal care and management of those who are afflicted with temporary or permanent derangement. London, England:  John W. Parker.

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

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

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

Stone, M.H. (1997). Healing the mind: A history of psychiatry from antiquity to the present. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company Inc.

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.

Paracelsus

In 1520 the Swiss physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) (Byers, 1998) published Diseases which lead to a Loss of Reason. In this he stated "the truly insane are those who have been suffering from it since birth and have brought it from the womb as a family heritage", thus inferring that some forms of madness are genetic in distribution. Poisons, witchcraft, astral influences, sinful imagination and disorders of the humours could all cause madness. He stated that there were five kinds of disease that could induce madness (Midelfort, 2000): epilepsy, mania, St. Vitus dance, suffocation of the intellect (caused by worms, uterine disorders and improper foods, for example) and loss of the senses. The last of these he further subdivided into five sub-categories: lunatics who through their own devices had fallen under the influence of the moon (lunacy); those who were insane from birth, due to careless and passionate sexual intercourse by the parents; witchcraft; and melancholy. Paracelsus also made it quite clear that spirits did not cause mental illness (Green, 2009). Therapies that he recommended included bleeding (which he considered to be the main thrust of treatment for mania), essences of gold, silver, iron, mercury, lead, pearls, coral, antimony, sapphire and sulphur (all alchemical remedies), opium, mandrake, astrological shielding to prevent lunacy, and the use of charms to treat those afflicted by witchcraft (Jacoby, 1918; Midelfort, 2000). Modern knowledge recognises that the use of some of the toxic agents that Paracelsus prescribed can help to rid the body of some psychopathological vectors (Panksepp, 2004), such as the causative organism of syphilis, Treponema pallidum (Kamen, 2000). The tertiary stage of syphilis is definitely connected with mental health problems (Semple, Smyth, Burns, Darjee & McIntosh, 2005). Paracelsus was also critical of the Inquisition and its treatment of the insane (Millon, 2004): “There are more superstitions in the Roman Church than in all these poor women and presumed witches.”  The concept of inducing seizures to treat psychiatric illnesses it not a new one. Paracelsus used camphor for this purpose (Abrams, 2002; Rudorfer, Henry & Sackheim, 2003).  In 1785 the London Medical Journal reported the use of the same substance to induce seizures in the treatment of mania (Abrams, 2002; Rudorfer, Henry & Sackheim, 2003).

Portrait of Paracelsus, attributed to the school of Quentin Matsys

References:

Abrams, R. (2002). Electroconvulsive therapy. (Fourth edition). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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

Green, B. (2009). Problem-based psychiatry. (Second edition). Abingdon, England: Radcliffe Publishing.

Jacoby, G.W. (1918). The unsound mind and the law: a presentation of forensic psychiatry. New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls.

Kamen, H. (2000). Who’s who in Europe 1450-1750. London, England: Routledge.

Midelfort, H.C. (2000). A history of madness in sixteenth century Germany. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

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.

Panksepp, J. (Ed.) (2004). Textbook of biological psychiatry. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Liss Inc.

Rudorfer, M.V., Henry, M.E., & Sackeim, H.A. (2003). Electroconvulsive therapy. In Tasman, A., Kay, J., & Lieberman, J.A. (Eds.) Psychiatry, (Second Edition). Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Semple, D., Smyth, R., Burns, J., Darjee, R., & McIntosh, A. (Eds.) (2005). Oxford handbook of psychiatry (First Edition). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

humorism

A theory of the causation of disease, allegedly first proposed by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. In essence, this is the notion that the body is filled with four basic substances, the four humours, which are in balance when a person is healthy (Kontopolou & Marketos, 2002). All diseases and disabilities resulted from either an excess or a deficit of one of the four (Cook, 2006; Kyziridis, 2005; Merkel, 2003; Rezneck, 1991; White, 2006), including mental illness (Mora, 1985). 

The four humors were identified as black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood (Cook, 2006; Hinshaw, 2007; Smith, 2006; White, 2006; Wootton, 2006). Each corresponded to various seasons, elements, sites of origin, qualities and, added at a later time, temperamental characteristics (Millon, 2004; Tuke, 1892). Thus blood was associated with spring, the element of air, arose from the liver, it was warm and moist; a person who had an excess of blood was known as sanguine and had the personality traits of courage, hope and amorousness. Yellow bile was associated with summer, fire, the gall bladder, was warm and dry; too much and one became choleric, becoming easily angered and bad tempered (a form of manic rage, (Colp, 2000)). Likewise black bile was associated with autumn, earth, the spleen, and was cold and dry; an excess resulted in melancholia (Rezneck, 1991; Smith, 2006), with the additional signs of despondency, irritability and insomnia. Lastly, phlegm was associated with winter, water, the brain and lungs and was cold and moist: phlegmatic types were calm and unemotional (Kontopolou & Marketos, 2002; Kyziridis, 2005). An excess of phlegm caused a form of dementia (Colp, 2000). Diseases could be cured by the application of heat, cold, moisture or dryness, according to the need. For example, melancholia, thought to be due to being overly dry and cold, was treated by the application of moisture and warmth. Any condition that was due to too little blood, which would lead to dryness and coldness, was treated in the same way (Kyziridis, 2005). Common therapies associated with this theory were bleeding, purgatives and cathartics (Colp, 2000; Krafft-Ebbing, 1903; White, 2006; Wootton, 2006). Bleeding in particular lasted as a therapy for mental illness into the 19^th century (Noll, 2007). As stated previously, it was not until the advent of modern science in the 17^th century (Blakemore & Jennett, 2001) that this theory tended to be disproved, and its absolute denial came in medicine with the cellular pathology theory of disease formulated by Rudolf Vichow in 1858 (Schultz, 2008; Szsaz, 2005), whereby all illness is thought to be due to changes in normal cells. It also has to be mentioned that the humoural theory made its mark on the English language, with the terms sanguine and good-humoured being examples of that influence (Millon, 2004), as well as the word plethora, which originally meant an excess of a humour (Noll, 2007).

References:

Blakemore, C., & Jennett, S.  (2001). The Oxford companion to the body. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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. 

Cook, J.W. (2006). Encyclopedia of Renaissance literature. New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.

Hinshaw, S.P.  (2007). The mark of shame: stigma of mental illness and an agenda for change. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Kontopolou, T.D., & Marketos, S.G. (2002). Homeostasis: the ancient Greek origin of a modern scientific principle. Hormones 1(2): 124-125.

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

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

Merkel, L (2003). The history of psychiatry. Retrieved from http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/psych-training/seminars/History-of-psychiatry-8-04.pdf

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.

Mora, G. (1985). History of psychiatry. In Kaplan, H.I & Sadock, B.J (eds.),  Comprehensive text book of psychiatry. Baltimore, MD.: Williams & Wilkins.

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

Rezneck, L. (1991). The philosophical defence of psychiatry. London, England: Routledge.

Schultz, M. (2008). Rudolf Virchow. Emerging Infectious Diseases 14(9): 1480–1481. 

Smith, M.A. (2006). Developing a recovery ethos for psychiatric services in New Zealand. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Szasz, T. (2005). What counts as disease?: the gold standard of disease versus the Fiat standard of diagnosis. The Independent Review 10, 3, 325-336.

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

White, K. (2006). The Sage dictionary of health and society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.

Wootton, D. (2006). Bad medicine: doctors doing harm since Hippocrates. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Hippocrates

Perhaps the one ancient Greek who contributed more to medicine, and mental health in particular, than any other was Hippocrates, who lived in the era of c. 460 B.C.E. to c. 370 B.C.E., and who has been called the “father of medicine” (Byers, 1998; Elliott, 1914; Hazel, 2002; Kelly, 2009; Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008; Missios, 2007; Moulton, 1998; Nardo, 2006; Nutton, 2004). He is also credited with being the first physician to discount divine forces as causing illness (Elder, Evans & Nizette, 2005; Elliott, 1914; Hazel, 2002; Kelly, 2009; Millon, 2004; Nutton, 2004; Smith, 2006; Wootton, 2006). Hippocrates was said to have been inspired in his study of medicine by books kept at the temple of Imhotep in Memphis, Egypt (Pinch, 2002). The Hippocratic Oath, a seminal document on the ethics of medical practice, was attributed to Hippocrates (Elliott, 1914; Gregory, 1987; Jayne, 1962; Kelly, 2009; Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008; Moulton, 1998; Nardo, 2006; Sacks, 2005; Thackery & Harris, 2003; Tischler, 2006). This is probably the most famous document of the Hippocratic Corpus, a series of around seventy treatises on medicine, attributed to Hippocrates, but probably written by his students (Albrecht, 2006; Bispham, Harrison & Sparkes, 2006; Elder, Evans & Nizette, 2005; Hazel, 2002; Kelly, 2009; Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008; Missios, 2007; Moulton, 1998; Nardo, 2006; Nutton, 2004; Sacks, 2005; Smith, 2006; Wootton, 2006). While the Oath is rarely used in its original form today, it serves as a foundation for other, similar oaths and laws that define good medical practice and morals, although it is no longer a requirement (Greek Medicine, n.d.).

The Hippocratic Oath in the original Greek

Among the Hippocratic Corpus are descriptions of illnesses that correspond to the modern diagnoses of depression (melancholia) (Bucknill & Tuke, 1858; Smith, 2006; Taylor & Fink, 2006), postpartum psychosis (Williams, 2005), mania (Bucknill & Tuke, 1858; Maneros & Goodwin, 2005; Smith, 2006), phobia (Elder, Evans & Nizette, 2005; MacKay, 2009), paranoia (Freeman & Freeman, 2008; Smith, 2006), pseudocyesis or false pregnancy (Davidson, 2009; Thackery & Harris, 2003), epilepsy (Engel & Pedley, 2008; Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008; Moulton, 1998; Smith, 2006; Stone, 2006; Tuke, 1892), which Hippocrates called The Sacred Disease, and transvestism, which he called the “Scythian disease” (Mendelson, 2003). He also described delirium due to high bodily temperature or fevers, a condition he called “phrenitis” (Krafft-Ebbing, 1903; Regis, 1894; Torrey & Miller, 2002) and hysteria, which could only be found in women as it was due to a “wandering womb” (Colp, 2000; Gregory, 1987; Merkel, 2003; Millon, 2004). A diagnosis of paranoia in these times could be grounds for declaring the patient incompetent and for having a guardian appointed (Stone, 2006). Hippocrates also appears to be one of the first writers to mention the harmful effect of the moon on mental stability (Porter, n.d.), a notion that led to the later label of lunacy, derived from the Latin word for moon, “luna”. This notion continued until the advent of modern psychiatry, and still exists at a popular level (Simpson & Roud, 2000). According to Evans & Farberow (2003), Hippocrates condemned suicide and averred that he would never assist a patient to end his own life.

Perhaps Hippocrates’ most notable contribution, and a theory that held sway in Europe until the advent of “modern science” in the 17^th century, is that of humorism (Albrecht, 2006; Bispham, Harrison & Sparkes, 2006; Bucknill & Tuke, 1858; Bugh, 2007; Bujalkova, Straka & Jureckova, 2001; Colp, 2000: Cook, 2006; Elder, Evans & Nizette, 2005: Elliott, 1914; Gregory, 1987; Hinshaw, 2007; Horowitz, 2005; Jacoby, 1918; Kelly, 2009; Kent, 2003; Keyser & Irby-Massey, 2008; Krafft-Ebbing, 1903; Levinson & Gaccione, 1997; Merenda, 1987; Millon, 2004; Moulton, 1998; Noll, 2007; Nutton, 2004; Porter, 2002; Rezneck, 1991; Sacks, 2005; Smith, 2006; Stone, 1997; Szasz, 2005; Thackery & Harris, 2003; White, 2006; Wootton, 2006).

Hippocrates

References:

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

Bispham, E., Harrison, T., & Sparkes, B.A. (Eds.) (2006). The Edinburgh companion to ancient Greece and Rome. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.

Bucknill, J.C., & Tuke, D.H. (1858). A manual of psychological medicine. Philadelphia, PA: Blanchard & Lea.

Bugh, G.R. (Ed.) (2007). The Cambridge companion to the Hellenistic world. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Bujalkova, M., Straka, S., & Jureckova, A. (2001). Hippocrates’ humoral pathology in nowaday’s reflections. Bratislava Medical Journal 102, 10, 489-492.

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

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

Cook, J.W. (2006). Encyclopedia of Renaissance literature. New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.

Davidson, T. (2009). Pseudocyesis. Retrieved from http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Pseudocyesis.html

Elder, R., Evans, K., & Nizette, D. (2005). Psychiatric and mental health nursing. Marrickville, Australia: Elsevier Australia.

Elliott, J.S. (1914). Outlines of Greek and Roman medicine. New York, NY: William Wood & Company.

Engel, J., & Pedley, T.A. (2008). Epilepsy: a comprehensive textbook. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

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

Freeman, D., & Freeman, J. (2008). Paranoia: the twenty-first century fear. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Greek Medicine (n.d). The Hippocratic oath. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html

Gregory, R.L. (Ed.) (1987). The Oxford companion to the mind. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Hazel, J. (2002). Who’s who in the Greek world. London, England: Routledge.

Hinshaw, S.P. (2007). The mark of shame: stigma of mental illness and an agenda for change. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Horowitz, M.C. (Ed.) (2005). New dictionary of the history of ideas. Farmington Mills, MI: Thomson Gale.

Jacoby, G.W. (1918). The unsound mind and the law: a presentation of forensic psychiatry. New York, NY: Funk & Wagnalls.

Jayne, W.A. (1962). The healing gods of ancient civilizations. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books Inc.

Kelly, K. (2009). The history of medicine: early civilizations prehistoric times to 500 C.E. New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.

Kent, D. (2003). Snake pits, talking cures and magic bullets – a history of mental illness. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books.

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.

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

Levinson, D., & Gaccione, L. (1997). Health and illness: a cross-cultural encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Inc.

Mackay, C. (2009). The hammer of witches: a complete translation of the Malleus Maleficarum. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Maneros, A. & Goodwin, F.K. (2005). Bipolar disorders beyond major depression and euphoric mania. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/.../9780521835176_excerpt.pdf

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

Merenda, P.F. (1987). Toward a four-factor theory of temperament and/or personality. Journal of Personality Assessment 51(3), 367-374.

Merkel, L (2003). The history of psychiatry. Retrieved from http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/psych-training/seminars/History-of-psychiatry-8-04.pdf

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.

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

Moulton, C. (Ed.) (1998). Ancient Greece and Rome: an encyclopedia for students. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Nardo, D. (2006). The Greenhaven encyclopedia of ancient Greece. Farmington Mills, MI: Gale, Cengage Learning.

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

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

Pinch, G. (2002). Handbook of Egyptian mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio.

Porter, R. (n.d.). World of the body – moon. Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/moon

Porter, R. (2002). Madness: a brief history. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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

Rezneck, L. (1991). The philosophical defence of psychiatry. London, England: Routledge.

Sacks, D. (2005). Encyclopedia of the ancient Greek world. New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.

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

Smith, M.A. (2006). Developing a recovery ethos for psychiatric services in New Zealand. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Waikato, New Zealand.

Stone, M.H. (1997). Healing the mind: A history of psychiatry from antiquity to the present. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company Inc.

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.

Szasz, T. (2005). What counts as disease?: the gold standard of disease versus the Fiat standard of diagnosis. The Independent Review 10, 3, 325-336.

Taylor, M.A., & Fink, M. (2006). Melancholia: the diagnosis, pathophysiology, and treatment of depressive illness. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

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

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

Torrey, E.F., & Miller, J. (2002). The invisible plague: the rise of mental Illness from 1750 to the present. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

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

White, K. (2006). The Sage dictionary of health and society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd.

Williams, M. (2005). Postpartum depression. Retrieved from http://www.epigee.org/pregnancy/ppd.html

Wootton, D. (2006). Bad medicine: doctors doing harm since Hippocrates. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

musical madness 5

Green Day's Basket Case, written by Billie Joe Armstrong in 1994. It documents his struggle with panic disorder and how he felt that he was going mad before given the diagnosis. In 2006 the song was voted the Greatest Punk Song of All Time by BBC Radio 1 listeners.


Basket Case

Lycurgus

According to Greek mythology, king of Edoni in Thrace, who angered the god Dionysus by banning his cult, so was afflicted with madness that resulted in him killing his own son, believing him to be a trunk of ivy and pruning away his nose and ears, fingers and toes (Bucknill & Tuke, 1858; Feder, 1980; Osborn & Burgess, 2004). The god further inflicted punishment by ensuring that the people of Edoni exacted revenge for the murder by having Lycurgus ripped asunder by wild horses (Bucknill & Tuke, 1858; March, 1998; Osborn & Burgess, 2004; Smith, 1870).

Lycurgus in his madness, attacking his wife, a painting dating from 350-340 BCE.

References:

Bucknill, J.C., & Tuke, D.H. (1858). A manual of psychological medicine. Philadelphia, PA: Blanchard & Lea.

Feder, L. (1980). Madness in literature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

March, J.R. (1998). Cassell’s dictionary of classical mythology. London, England: Cassell & Co.

Osborn, K., & Burgess, D.L. (2004). The complete idiot’s guide to classical mythology. (2^nd edition). New York, NY: Alpha Books.

Smith, W. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.

Mad Hatter

Published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s book Alice in Wonderland has many eccentric characters in it. One that has links to mental illness is the Mad Hatter. The phrase “as mad as a hatter” predates Carroll’s writings (the first recorded written example being from an 1835 novel by the Canadian author Thomas Halliburton (Mad as a Hatter, 2007)), but it is from him that it really came to public attention. There are several possible explanations as to the source of the simile. Some aver that it derives from the name of a 17^th century eccentric, John Hatter; others that a real hatter,  Robert Crab, of Chesham, who received head injuries during the English Civil War and went on to develop religious delusions and thought of himself as a prophet, was the source. He gave all his goods to the poor and lived on dock leaves and grass (Jack, 2004). A third possibility is one Theophilus Carter, an Oxford cabinet maker and furniture dealer of the 1850s, renowned for eccentricity (Mad as a Hatter, 2007). He always wore a top hat, which would fit with the picture that Carroll gave of his Mad Hatter, and invented an alarm-clock bed which awoke the sleeper by tipping the bed over. Carroll would have been aware of this man when he himself was a don at Oxford University. However, most authorities seem to agree that it was the use of mercuric nitrate in the manufacture of felt hats that gave rise to the expression (Elder, Evans & Nizette, 2005; Gregory, 1987). This heavy metal compound was absorbed into the body and resulted in an organic psychosis (Levin, 2007: Noll, 2007).

The original illustration of the Mad Hatter, by Sir James Tenniel

References:

Elder, R., Evans, K., & Nizette, D. (2005). Psychiatric and mental health nursing. Marrickville, Australia: Elsevier Australia.

Gregory, R.L. (Ed.) (1987). The Oxford companion to the mind. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Jack, A. (2004). Red herrings & white elephants – the origins of the phrases we use everyday. London, England: Perfect Bound.

Levin, P. (2007). From mad hatters to dental amalgams: heavy metals: toxicity and testing. Medical Laboratory Observer 39,  12, 20-26.

Mad as a Hatter (2007). Mad as a hatter. New Zealand Science Teacher 116, 4.

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

Maniae

Greek mythology recognised two goddesses of madness, the Maniae (Theoi Greek Mythology, n.d.; Vaughan, 1919), named Mania and Lyssa, and daughters of Nyx (goddess of the night). They had a sanctuary near Megalopolis in Arcadia (Smith, 1870). The former was the personification of insanity, while the latter was the goddess of rabies and mad rage. It was Lyssa who caused the dogs of Actaeon, grandson of Cadmus, the king of Thebes, to attack their master when he had spied on Artemis at her bath (Dixon-Kennedy, 1998; March, 1998; Osborn & Burgess, 2004; Smith, 1870). What is interesting about this differentiation between the two goddesses is that the ancient Greeks appear to have recognised that insanity did not necessarily mean mad to the extent of violence, and that if violence was evident in the mad, its causation was entirely different, being akin to rabid behaviour in animals.

An ancient depiction of the Actaeon myth, showing, from left to right, Zeus, Lyssa, Actaeon and Artemis.

References:

Dixon-Kennedy, M. (1998). Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Inc.

March, J.R. (1998). Cassell’s dictionary of classical mythology. London, England: Cassell & Co.

Osborn, K., & Burgess, D.L. (2004). The complete idiot’s guide to classical mythology. (2^nd edition). New York, NY: Alpha Books.

Smith, W. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.

Theoi Greek Mythology (n.d.). Maniai. Retrieved from http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Maniai.html

Vaughan, A.C. (1919). Madness in Greek thought and custom. Baltimore, MD: J. H. Furst Company.

moonrakers

The nickname “moonrakers” is traditionally given to people from Wiltshire, especially those from Bishop Cannings (Simpson & Roud, 2000). This is said to be derived from the following story: once, some smugglers from Bishop Cannings had hidden barrels of brandy in a pond, and were spotted by excisemen while trying to retrieve them. Challenged, they replied that they were ‘only raking for that big cheese down there’, pointing at the moon’s reflection (Moonrakers, n.d.). This gave rise to the notion that all Wiltshire folk were particularly stupid or mad.

An old postcard showing Wiltshire “moonrakers”

References:

Moonrakers (n.d.). Why moonrakers? – the moonraker legend. Retrieved from http://www.moonrakers.org.uk/moonrakers.asp

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

quotations on madness 3

Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Scientology and psychiatry

A group that has antipathy to psychiatry are adherents of the scientology movement (Berlim, Fleck & Shorter, 2003; Mieszkowski, 2009). Scientology was founded as a religion in 1954 in Los Angeles (Clarke, 2006; Lewis, 2009; Shorter, 1997) by the former science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) (Gardner, 1957; McCall, 2007; Passas & Castillo, 1992), and claims to have over seven million adherents (Atack, 1990). 

L. Ron Hubbard

One of the main tenets of this belief system is that human beings are really immortal spiritual beings (thetans, who reincarnate and have lived on other planets before coming to Earth (Atack, 1990; Beit-Hallahmi, 1998; Clarke, 2006; McCall, 2007; Passas & Castillo, 1992) who have forgotten their true nature. In order to become aware of this “fact”, believers have to undergo a type of counseling known as auditing (Gardner, 1957; Lewis, 2009; McCall, 2007), in which they aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events from their past, in order to free themselves of their limiting effects (Clarke, 2006). This can only be achieved by the donation of specified amounts of money to the church, and for this reason Scientology is often criticized as a cult that financially defrauds and abuses its members, charging exorbitant fees for its spiritual services (Passas & Castillo, 1992). Another belief is that psychiatry is destructive and abusive and must be abolished (Atack, 1990; Cooper, 1971). Psychiatrists, it is claimed, kill or torture their patients with electric shock treatment (McCall, 2007; Shorter, 1997), use them sexually, and never ever help them. They conspire with governments to control the people, drug children (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. b) or the rest of humanity (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. n), stifle creativity (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. h), are responsible for terrorism (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. a), are coercive in their care (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. c), abuse the elderly (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. f),  participate in a corrupt industry (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. j), subvert medicine as a whole (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. l), erode justice (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. g), have a host of diagnoses that do not exist in reality (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. k), create racism (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. d),  assault women and children (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. m), are anti-religion (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. q; McCall, 2007), use deadly restraints in the name of care (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. e), make massive profits from schizophrenia (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. o), use therapies that are in fact harmful (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. p; McCall, 2007), and destroy young minds (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. i). Scientologists have even blamed psychiatry for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York (1888 Press Release, 2009). Hubbard himself said:

                We have never found one person cured by psychiatrists, not one. If they call, as they do, anyone 

                who disagrees with them insane, then those who agree with this human butchery should wear a 

                swastika arm band so we can recognize them.

                (Cooper, 1971)

Perhaps the most notorious of advocates for scientology’s stance on psychiatry is the American actor, Tom Cruise. In 2005 he criticised Brooke Shields for her use of paroxetine in her postpartum depression, stating that depression was not due to a chemical imbalance, and that psychiatry was a pseudoscience. Later, when interviewed for Entertainment Weekly magazine, he voiced the opinion that psychiatry was a Nazi science (Contact Music, 2005), a view that appears consistent with scientological belief (McCall, 2007). 

Tom Cruise

It is worth noting, from a New Zealand perspective, that the second local church of scientology opened, not in the USA, but in Auckland, in 1954 (Atack, 1990; Lewis, 2009).

References:

1888 Press Release (2009). Scientology: psychiatrists to blame for 9/11 attacks. Retrieved from

http://www.1888pressrelease.com/scientology-psychiatrists-to-blame-for-9-11-attacks-pr-123127.html

Atack, J. (1990). A piece of blue sky – Scientology, dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard exposed. New 

York, NY: Lyle Stuart.

Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1998). The illustrated encyclopedia of active new religions, sects, and cults. New 

York, NY: Rosen Publishing Group Inc.

Berlim, M.T., Fleck, M.P.A., & Shorter, E. (2003). Notes on antipsychiatry. European Archives of 

Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience 253, 2, 61.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. a). Chaos and terror: manufactured by psychiatry.

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/4.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. b). Child drugging: psychiatry destroying lives.

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/2.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. c). Community ruin: psychiatry’s coercive care. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/5.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. d). Creating racism: psychiatry’s betrayal. Retrieved from 

http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/13.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. e). Deadly restraints: psychiatry’s therapeutic assault. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/17.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. f). Elderly abuse: cruel mental health programs. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/8.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. g). Eroding justice: psychiatry’s corruption of law. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/11.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. h). Harming artists: how psychiatry ruins creativity. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/3.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. i). Harming youth: psychiatry destroys young minds. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/20.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. j). Massive fraud: psychiatry’s corrupt industry. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/9.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. k). Pseudoscience: psychiatry’s false diagnoses. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/12.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. l). Psychiatric hoax: the subversion of medicine. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/10.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. m). Psychiatric rape: assaulting women and children. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/14.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. n). Psychiatry: hooking your world on drugs.  Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/7.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. o). Schizophrenia: psychiatry’s for profit disease. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/18.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. p). The brutal reality: harmful  psychiatric treatments. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/19.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. q). Unholy assault: psychiatry versus religion. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/16.pdf

Clarke, P.B. (Ed.) (2006). Encyclopedia of new religious movements. London, England: Routledge.

Contact Music (2005). Tom Cruise - Cruise tripped up by magazine over scientology claims. Retrieved

 from http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/cruise-tripped-up-by-magazine-over-

scientology-claims

Cooper, P. (1971). The scandal of scientology. Gainesville, FL: Tower Publications. Retrieved from 

http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/tsos/sos.html

Gardner, M. (1957). Fads and fallacies in the name of science. New York, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

Lewis, J.R. (2009). Scientology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

McCall, W.V. (2007). Psychiatry and psychology in the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. Journal of Religion 

and Health 46, 3, 437-447.

Mieszkowski, K. (2009). Scientology’s war on psychiatry. Retrieved from 

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/01/sci_psy/?pn=1

Passas, N., & Castillo, M.E. (1992). Scientology and its “clear” business. Behavioural Sciences and the 

Law 10, 103-116.

Shorter, E. (1997). A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. New 

York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.