Founders Of Psychiatry Research Articles

History of development of psychiatry and its establishment in Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

The paper is devoted to the study of the development of psychiatry and its establishment as a science in the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The leading method of research was the analysis and synthesis of historical sources of the 19th to 21st centuries. The historical analysis of the development of psychiatry was carried out through the study of the life and scientific path of Ivan Sikorsky, Mykhailo Lapinsky, Volodymyr Seletsky, who were the founders of psychiatry as an academic discipline in Ukraine. In 2020, 135 years have passed since the foundation of the Department of Nervous and Mental Diseases in the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The founders of the department are well-known talented scientists, whose activities have enriched psychiatric science. But from 1920 to 2019, psychiatry as a science and a subject of teaching disappeared from the University. Psychiatry received its further development at the university in 2019, with establishment of the Institute of Psychiatry. The practical significance of the study lies in the substantial contribution to the history of domestic medical science, in particular, mental disorder studies, as well as the possibility of using the findings in the teaching of an educational course in psychiatry.

Étude sur l’idiotisme chez Philippe Pinel

AimThe author of this article sets out to examine the origins and evolution of the category of idiotism in Philippe Pinel's work. MethodThis study is based on textual and comparative analysis of Pinel's writings, from the Tableau Général des fous de Bicêtre au nombre d’environ 200 (General table of around 200 cases of insanity treated at Bicêtre), published in 1794, to the last edition of his Nosographie philosophique ou la méthode de l’analyse appliquée à la médecine (Philosophical nosography), published in 1818. ResultsThis analysis has made it possible to retrace the development of the nosographic status of idiotism, to identify its clinical characteristics and highlight Pinel's pessimism with regard to the potential for treatment. The vast majority of cases of idiotism did not support his innovative theory according to which insane subjects retain a small degree of reasoning ability. In fact with many idiots barely any dialogue proved to be possible. Furthermore, very few of them could be cured. In his report on the Wild Child of the Aveyron (1800–1801) and his article on “Mania” (1808), Pinel relates a number of observations of “idiot” children. The founder of psychiatry therefore held that a child could become insane; but this was to be disputed by some of his contemporaries and successors. DiscussionPinel's very negative assessment of idiotism must be qualified; in actual fact his assessment varied depending on its clinical form, whether it was complete or partial, and depending on its cause – physical or moral, inborn or accidental. ConclusionsThe fact that Pinel considered idiotism as a case apart has no doubt largely contributed to the fact that no study focusing on this category has been published to date. Although his view corresponds to a resurgence of the traditional concept of madness, our study shows that it is more than merely a restatement of this vestige of ancient times.

Cerebral systems in the pathogenesis of endogenous psychoses. 1974.

Mental process imply a harmonious functioning of psychic systems, assembled into larger units, psychic spheres (Table 1). Their neurophysiological representatives are brain systems of areas and pathways (Figs 1-4). Under functional and/or organic disturbances these systems originate the leading mental symptoms (Table 2) characterizing the diverse endogenous psychoses: hence, the latter's distinctive patterns. Accordingly, understanding and classification of psychoses should rest on the pathogenic dynamisms, not on clinical description. This is why Kleist's and Leonhard's conceptions of the endogenous psychoses surpass any other to exist. Kleist stands among the founders of psychiatry, by describing the "degeneration psychoses" and many single psychoses, as well as redefining, isolating and clarifying the progressive ones, later on renamed as schizophrenias (Table 3). Such pathogenic criterion may also be useful to define mental conditions other than psychoses, as hysteria, neuroses and psychopathic inferiority (Tables 4 and 5). One should consider here, besides the psychic systems and spheres involved, the way they were caught and the corresponding developmental phase. In Kleist's "degeneration psychoses"--cyclic or episodic (Table 6) the systems and spheres are disturbed by functional transient processes due to latent dispositions, while his and Leonhard's schizophrenias (Table 7) show a rather progressive, deteriorating course. The nature of the disorder is itself genetically determined, as is either its confinement to one sphere or its spreading out. The spread out pattern, while exceptional in schizophrenia, represents a rule for the "degeneration psychoses", in discussant's mind. Both groups may have symptoms alike by involvement of the same sphere (Table 8), but proper diagnosis is reached by taking pathogenesis into consideration.

Philippe Pinel's "Memoir on Madness" of December 11, 1794: a fundamental text of modern psychiatry.

Philippe Pinel's "Memoir on Madness" can now be precisely dated. It was read to the Society for Natural History in Paris on Dec. 11, 1794, soon after the fall of the Jacobin dictatorship. It is thus a political document, an appeal to the Revolutionary government to build asylums where the mentally ill could be decently treated. It is translated here for the first time. Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) served as "physician of the infirmaries" at Bicêtre, the public hospice for men near Paris, from 1793 to 1795. In the "Memoir on Madness" he explains his "psychologic treatment," the principles of the humane method that made him the founder of psychiatry in France. Pinel states that mental illness is often curable. To arrive at a diagnosis, the physician must carefully observe a patient's behavior, interview him, listen carefully, and take notes. He must understand the natural history of the disease and the precipitating event and write an accurate case history. Diagnosis and prognosis can then be made. Periodic patterns of mental illness can be helpful for therapy. Usually only one faculty is affected. Patients with delusions may be malicious or murderous. They may have to be restrained; it was Pinel's assistant, Jean Baptiste Pussin, who removed the chains from the insane men at Bicêtre Hospice in 1797 and replaced them with strait-jackets. Pinel followed suit at the Salpêtrière, the public hospice for women, 3 years later. Pinel here states that one must "dominate agitated madmen while respecting human rights."

Cerebral systems in the pathogenesis of endogenous psychoses.

Mental processes imply a harmonious functioning of psychic systems, assembled into larger units, psychic spheres (Table I). Their neurophysiological representatives are brain systems of areas and pathways (Fig. 1-4). Under functional and/or organic disturbances these systems originate the leading mental symptoms (Table II) characterizing the diverse endogenous psychoses: hence, the latter's distinctive patterns. Accordingly, understanding and classification of psychoses should rest on the pathogenic dynamisms, not on clinical description. This is why Kleist's and Leonhard's conceptions of the endogenous psychoses surpass any other to exist. Kleist stands among the founders of psychiatry, by describing the "degeneration psychoses" and many single psychoses, as well as redefining, isolating and clarifying the progressive ones, later on renamed as schizophrenias (Table III). Such pathogenic criterion may also be useful to define mental conditions other than psychoses, as hysteria, neuroses and psychopathic inferiority (Tables IV and V). One should consider here, besides the psychic systems and spheres involved, the way they were caught and the corresponding developmental phase. In Kleist's "degeneration psychoses" - cyclic or episodic (Table VI) - the systems and spheres are disturbed by functional transient processes due to latent dispositions, while his and Leonhard's schizophrenias (Table VII) show a rather progressive, deteriorating course. The nature of the disorder is itself genetically determined, as is either its confinement to one sphere or its spreading out. The spread out pattern, while exceptional in schizophrenia, represents a rule for the "degeneration psychoses", in discussant's mind. Both groups may have symptoms alike by involvement of the same sphere (Table VIII), but proper diagnosis is reached by taking pathogenesis into consideration.