Roots Of Psychiatry Research Articles

Looking Back to Advance Equity in Psychiatric Nursing: Strategies for the Classroom and for Practice.

With deep historical roots in psychiatry, structural racism persists in psychiatric nursing today. Psychiatric nurses may hold implicit biases and stereotypical beliefs that influence how they perceive, assess, and interact with people from different racial backgrounds, leading to discrimination, poor treatment, and misdiagnosis. To eliminate discrimination in clinical care and diversify the workforce, there is an urgent need to integrate teaching and learning strategies that address influences of racism and racial identity in psychiatric nursing education. This article explores the historical context and proposes antiracist psychiatric nursing teaching and practice interventions to reduce the harms of racism.

The role of the photographic arts in psychiatry

Photography is a medium that has historical roots in psychiatry. It is an art form that shares some concepts with psychodynamic psychotherapy and can also provide psychotherapeutic value. In addition, it can provide a means of stress reduction for the burned-out clinician. Photographs can also be utilised for educational activities to stimulate reflection and discussion.

Journal of molecular psychiatry.

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the new Journal of Molecular Psychiatry – JMP! Molecular Psychiatry is a rapidly expanding field and there are high hopes that its findings will improve the condition of patients suffering from psychiatric disorders in terms of diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. There is only a limited number of journals specialising in this exciting area, and we believe that a modern internet-based electronic journal fully dedicated to the open-access principle with a thorough and efficient peer-review process and without space restrictions, will serve well the communication and publication needs of the scientific community. All articles published in JMP will be open access, therefore complying with the open access policies of funders including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute [1], NIH [2], and Wellcome Trust [3]. We are proud that one of the first publications in JMP is authored by Eric Nestler [4], who - together with Ron Duman – coined the term “Molecular Psychiatry” in the 1980s. Considered by many as the “Father of Molecular Psychiatry” and an eminent researcher, he critically reviews the historical development this discipline has undertaken during the last 30 years. He points out chances and opportunities, but also mentions mishaps and disappointments. While the term “molecular psychiatry” is widely used, surprisingly little has been published about its meaning and conceptualisation. Many seem to use the term as a more contemporary synonym for “biological psychiatry”. However, “biological psychiatry” usually represents a quite reductionist view of mental health and psychiatric disorders as phenomena which can and should exclusively be understood and explained in a mechanistic way based on neuroscience and pathophysiology. Thus, human behaviour is interpreted as the result or simple metaphenomenon of processes occurring on the cellular, genetic and molecular level. Unfortunately, this does not reflect the reality of clinical practice and the humanistic roots of psychiatry which are equally important as its biological aspects. It is one of the great achievements of molecular psychiatry to unravel the oversimplification of many theories in biological psychiatry and to open our eyes to fundamental processes such as gene-environment interaction which enable us to integrate even psychotherapeutic and social concepts of mental health into a new holistic and integrative psychiatry. Therefore, we are planning to not only publish high-quality research based on molecular neuroscience, but also reviews of mental health research in the context of Molecular Psychiatry. I am very grateful to the editorial board [5] consisting of an international panel of eminent scientists and psychiatrists for its support. I am also thankful to the publishers BioMed Central and Springer Vienna who helped to realise this project, especially Mrs Schilgerius and Ms Ridgway who are handling with their teams all the logistic and infrastructural procedures needed for the successful production of the articles. We all have worked hard during the last months to launch JMP and are proud of what we have achieved. The following publications prove that JMP already is a great success.

Analytical psychology and psychiatry in Italy today

The aim of this article is to offer some reflections on the potential of analytical psychology in the field of psychiatric cure of psychotic patients mostly in the context of public mental health services. It will do so by drawing on Italian past and present experiences, as well as investigating future perspectives. The Italian mental health legislation which has been in force for 32 years now is still of particular value and shows how the clinical, political, economic and hermeneutic realms are interconnected and worthy of attention especially in the therapy of psychosis. Analytical psychology can and must set itself up as the organiser of meaning between the different fields of psychiatry, depth psychology and socio-psychiatry. Analysed in his social and political context, the therapy of the psychotic patient makes of individuation a political as well as a therapeutic act of searching for the Self of both individuals and systems. This would signal the return of analytical psychology to its roots in psychiatry from which it rose up and from which it split off as a result of grave inadequacies on both sides.

Can pastoral counselling recover its roots in madness?

Modern pastoral counselling had its origins in North America in the experience of people, who suffered from psychiatric illnesses and who believed them to be spiritual crises, which would respond to pastoral care. In the United Kingdom many of those involved in the foundation of the pastoral care and counselling movement also worked in psychiatric hospitals. In both Europe and America pastoral counselling has largely forsaken its roots in psychiatry. However, recent research amongst mental health service users/survivors reveals how important spiritual care and counsel are and how few resources are available to provide this service from psychiatry, religious organisations or secular counselling services. The results of three research projects in Somerset are described and the significance of the recovery of pastoral counselling to fill the vacuum of spiritual care is explored.

The cure of souls: psychiatric dilemmas

Misunderstandings quite frequently occur between patients and their doctors because psychiatrists may be unable to comprehend and therefore accept their patient's experience. 'Soul' and 'spirit' are essential characteristics of human life: soul ultimately means 'quick moving', the principle of life; spirit etymologically refers to breath and is also the animating or vital principle.The spiritual aspects of a person include his or her aims and goals, the interrelatedness of human beings, wholeness of person in which spirit is not separate from body or mind, moral aspects of goodness, beauty and enjoyment and an awareness of God. Psychiatrists have historically had difficulties with the spiritual realm, some of the roots of psychiatry have been anti-ecclesiastical and currently psychiatrists are well aware of the harmful effects of some religious groups upon vulnerable patients.However, religious people, those who regard faith, religious practice and spiritual issues as important, have had distrust for some psychiatrists and their publications.There has also been a degree of professional rivalry between clergy and psychiatrists who share some of the same goals for their parishioners/patients. Patients feel themselves sometimes to have been caught in the cross-fire and this has resulted in reluctance to talk about spiritual issues to their psychiatrists or mental health problems to their priest.In practice there is considerable evidence for the benefit of religious belief in achieving good mental health and recovery from mental illness.It is important for the psychiatrist to be aware of patients'religious beliefs and spiritual aspirations, to understand these and know about patients' backgrounds. It is harmful for psychiatrists to try and impose their own views and understandings upon their patients.

One hundred years of German neuropathology

The history of the German Neuropathology since the beginning of the 20th Century with its roots in psychiatry, neurology, and pathology and with its interconnections in these specialties til today is demonstrated. The changes in methods and in main scientific topics are mentioned just as the shadows fallen after a flower time in the first three decenniums in the international reputation by the expulsion into the emigration and the political persecution of so many colleagues, furthermore by the involvement in the so-called euthanasia. The institutional development since 1945 lead to the foundation of an own scientific society, own congresses, and a regulated training as the basis to win again international acceptance. Risks will be seen in the overspecialization as well as in the uncritical adaptation of molecular genetic methods.

The Biological Roots of Psychiatry

The Biological Roots of Psychiatry