The Greeks and the PsychiatristMind and Madness in Ancient Greece: The Classical Roots of Modern Psychiatry. Bennett Simon

Abstract

Classical scholars, albeit with reluctance in some cases, now grant that the ancient Greeks were capable of irrational behavior. Psychiatrists and psychotherapists survey and quarry the rich deposits of Greek myth and literature for material that may throw light on the problems of the twentieth-century psyche. A recent book by a psychiatrist, Dr. Bennett Simon, takes a further step. As others have done, he studies the behavior of the ancient Greeks from Homer to Plato in the light of modern psychotherapy and psychoanalysis; but on the basis of his study of Homer and Plato, he also makes certain proposals for the theory and practice of psychotherapy and for the solution of problems, particularly those concerned with the relationship between the psychoanalytic and social psychiatric models of healing. Accordingly, Simon's book raises two kinds of questions for the reader: Does it throw light on the ancient Greeks, and are his proposals for his professional colleagues likely to be of any value to them? The answers to the questions are entirely independent: however perceptive his reading of ancient authors may be, his practical proposals for healing might be unacceptable or impracticable, and a complete misunderstanding of the ancient Greeks might yet yield theory and practice of great value to the psychotherapist and psychiatrist. In fact, with the qualifications to be expressed below, Simon as a student of the classics is an amateur only in the best, etymological sense of the word. However classical scholars may evaluate his psychoanalytic interpretations, in most cases he has an accurate and sensitive understanding of the primary, surface sense of the texts he is interpreting. He is sometimes led astray, however, by supposing a widespread Greek attitude to be a quirk of the author he is reading. Simon divides his work into five parts: "Themes in the Study of the Mind," "The Poetic Model," "The Philosophical Model," "The Medical Model," and "Models of Therapy." The arguments are detailed and complex throughout, and even a long review cannot consider all the points that are raised. I have chosen to discuss those which seem likely to be of most interest to the readers of this journal. * A review of: Bennett Simon, Mind and Madness in Ancient Greece: The Classical Roots of Modern Psychiatry (Ithaca, N.Y., and London: Cornell University Press, 1978), pp. 336, $17.50 (cloth); $9.95 (paper).