Mental disorders in the classical world / edited by W.V. Harris.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Harris, William V. (William Vernon), editor.

Series:

Columbia studies in the classical tradition ; v. 38.

Columbia studies in the classical tradition, 0166-1302 ; v. 38

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mental illness.

Mental illness--History.

History.

Mental Disorders--history.

Mental Disorders--classification.

History, Ancient.

Medical Subjects:

Mental Disorders--history.

Mental Disorders--classification.

History, Ancient.

Physical Description:

xv, 512 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2013.

Summary:

The historians, classicists, and psychiatrists who have come together to produce Mental Disorders in the Classical World aim to explain how the Greeks and their Roman successors conceptualized, diagnosed and treated mental disorders. The Greeks initiated the secular understanding of mental illness, and have left us a large body of penetrating and though-provoking writing on the subject, ranging in time from Homer to the sixth century AD. With the conceptual basis of modern psychiatry once again under intense debate, we need to learn from other rational approaches even when they lack modern scientific underpinnings. Meanwhile this volume adds a rich chapter to the cultural and medical history of antiquity. The contributors include a high proportion of the best-regarded scholars in this field, together with papers by some of its rising stars. Book jacket.

Contents:

Thinking about mental disorders in classical antiquity / W.V.Harris

Current problems in the classification of mental illness

'Carving nature at the joints' : the dream of a perfect classification of mental illness / Bennett Simon

If only the ancients had had DSM, all would have been crystal clear : reflections on diagnosis / Julian C. Hughes

Greek classification

The early greek medical vocabulary of insanity / Chiara Thumiger

The typology and aetiology of madness in ancient greek medical and philosophical writing / Jacques Jouanna

Galenic madness / Vivian Nutton

What is a mental illness, and how can it be treated? : Galen's reply as a doctor and philosopher / Veronique Boudon-Millot

Disturbing connections : sympathetic affections, mental disorder, and the elusive soul in galen / Brooke Holmes

Plato on madness and the good life / Katja Maria Vogt

Particular syndromes

Mental disorder and the perils of definition : characterizing epilepsy in greek scientific discourse (5th-4th centuries BCE) / Roberto Lo Presti

Medical epistemology and melancholy : Rufus of Ephesus and Miskawayh / Peter E. Pormann

'Quem nos furorem, ... illi vocant' : Cicero on melancholy / George Kazantzidis

Fear of flute girls, fear of falling / Helen King

Symptoms, cures and therapy

Greek and roman hallucinations / W.V.Harris

Cure and (in)curability of mental disorders in ancient medical and philosophical thought / Philip van der Eijk

Philosophical therapy as preventive psychological medicine / Christopher Gill

From homer to attic tragedy

From homeric ate to tragic madness / Suzanne Said

The madness of tragedy / Glenn W. Most

Mental disorders and responsibility

Mental illness, moral error, and responsibility in Late Plato / Maria Michela Sassi

The rhetoric of the insanity plea / David Konstan

A roman coda

Madness in the digest / Peter Toohey

The psychological impact of disasters in the age of Justinian / Jerry Toner

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789004249820

9004249826

OCLC:

825198029