<i>Phrenitis</i> and the Pathology of the Mind in Western Medical Thought: (Fifth Century BCE to Twentieth Century CE)

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Publication date:

16 November 2023

30 November 2023

ISBN:

9781009241311

9781009241328

9781009241342

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009241311

Creative Commons:

This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0.
https://creativecommons.org/creativelicenses

Dimensions:

(229 x 152 mm)

Weight & Pages:

0.851kg, 460 Pages

Dimensions:

(229 x 152 mm)

Weight & Pages:

0.74kg, 460 Pages

Subjects:: Classical Studies, History, Ancient Philosophy, History of Medicine

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Subjects:: Classical Studies, History, Ancient Philosophy, History of Medicine

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Phrenitis is ubiquitous in ancient medicine and philosophy. Galen mentions the disease innumerable times, patristic authors take it as a favourite allegory of human flaws, and no ancient doctor fails to diagnose it and attempt its cure. Yet the nature of this once famous disease has not been understood properly by scholars. This book provides the first full history of phrenitis. In doing so, it surveys ancient ideas about the interactions between body and soul, both in health and in disease. It also addresses ancient ideas about bodily health, mental soundness and moral 'goodness', and their heritage in contemporary psychiatric ideas. Readers will encounter an exciting narrative about health, illness and care as embedded in ancient 'life', but will also be forced to reflect critically on our contemporary ideas of what it means to be 'insane'. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

‘A comprehensive account of the history of the concept of phrenitis has long been awaited. This monograph by Chiara Thumiger, a leading expert in the study of the history of mental health and illness, admirably fills this major gap.’

Philip van der Eijk - Humboldt University Berlin

‘Chiara Thumiger's monumental study of phrenitis is not only an astonishingly erudite and refreshingly sophisticated guide to the ancient, post-classical, and even modern evidence for this perplexing, obsolete, but central medical term for mental illness. It never forgets the human patients, in their distress and anxiety, and the human doctors who do their best to understand and help them.’

Glenn Most - Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, and University of Chicago

‘Chiara Thumiger’s extraordinary book examines the history of the disease phrenitis from the fifth century BCE to its progressive disappearance in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries CE. Its longue-durée approach and its breadth bring to mind Owsei Temkin’s The Falling Sickness: A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology. The work draws upon a huge array of sources, both medical and non-medical, and deals sympathetically with the suffering of humans and non-human animals.’

Laurence Totelin - Cardiff University

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Phrenitis and the Pathology of the Mind in Western Medical Thought

(Fifth Century BCE to Twentieth Century CE)

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Contents

Phrenitis and the Pathology of the Mind in Western Medical Thought
pp i-i

Reviews
pp ii-ii

Phrenitis and the Pathology of the Mind in Western Medical Thought - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

Figures
pp vii-vii

Acknowledgements
pp viii-x

Chapter 1 - Preface and Methodological Issues
pp 1-20

Chapter 2 - Phrenitis in Classical (Fifth–Fourth Centuries bce) and Hellenistic (Third–First Centuries bce) Medicine
pp 21-57

Chapter 3 - Psychology and Delocalizing Themes
pp 58-93

Chapter 4 - Theoretical Aspects of Imperial Nosology
pp 94-128

Chapter 5 - Phrenitic People
pp 129-184

Chapter 6 - Quasi phreneticus
pp 185-223

Chapter 7 - The Byzantine and Medieval Periods
pp 224-286

Chapter 8 - The Construction of the Phrenitic in Larger Society
pp 287-314

Chapter 9 - Phrenitis in the Modern and Early-Modern Worlds
pp 315-359

Chapter 10 - The Modern Age
pp 360-369

Appendices
pp 370-389

Appendix 1 - The ‘Sun Disease’
pp 370-376

Appendix 2 - Naming, Nomenclatures, Dictionaries
pp 377-384

Appendix 3 - Phrenitis from the Fifth Century bce to the Twentieth Century ce: A Synoptic Table
pp 385-389

Bibliography
pp 390-431

Index Locorum
pp 432-440

General Index
pp 441-448

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Phrenitis and the Pathology of the Mind in Western Medical Thought

(Fifth Century BCE to Twentieth Century CE)

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