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 17th
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
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