The Age of the Samhitas

2020 ◽  
pp. 40-65
Author(s):  
M. R. Raghava Varier
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Method ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Medical System ◽  
Rational Method ◽  
Indigenous Healing ◽  
Codified Knowledge ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scientific Truth ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
The Mind

The systematic and codified knowledge of Āyurveda attained maturity in the classical texts of the samhitas. They are several texts and each of them is attached to the name of an ācārya, preceptor, such as Caraka, Suśruta, Bhela, Kāśyapa, and Hārīta. The knowledge and wisdom of indigenous healing and healthcare are explained in the samhitas with special references to a particular branch of the system of medicine. Thus kāyacikitsa, general medicine, is the subject of the Carakasamhita while śalyacikitsa, surgery, is the subject of the Suśrutasamhita. Bhēḷasamhita deals mainly with diseases and treatments for the mind, Kāśyapasamhita focuses on koumārabhṛtya, pediatrics, and the subject of the Hārītasamhita is gṛhabādha, demonology, and allied matters. What were preserved in preceding literature including the Vedas, the Brāhmaņas, and the Buddhist Pali canonical texts as seeds and seedlings are found fully grown in the samhitas, nourished by scholarly discussions at various levels. The indigenous medical system was designated as Āyurveda by the time of the samhitas. Topics such as qualities of a preceptor, qualities of a disciple, and qualities of the science are discussed in the various samhitas. Initiation of the disciples, knowledge of anatomy, procedure of treatment, and Modalities of treatment are discussed in great detail. The traditional method of the daivavyapāśraya (the divine or magico-religious) mode of treatment of the Vedic tradition was replaced by the yuktivyapāśraya (empirico-rational) method of therapy with the codification of the Carakasamhita. The emphasis of Caraka was on the process of investigation, which is essential for arriving at scientific truth and hence he repeatedly uses the word parīkṣa instead of pramāṇa.

Some Genetical Problems in Mental Deficiency

1938 ◽  
Vol 84 (352) ◽  
pp. 693-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. S. Penrose
Keyword(s):  
General Medicine ◽  
Mental Deficiency ◽  
Simple Rules ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mental Defect

The popular conception of mental defect is that it is a common abnormality of a kind fairly easy to understand and to study, and for whose ætiology simple rules can be laid down. Textbooks on general medicine usually dismiss the subject in a few paragraphs, and even those devoted to diseases of the mind rarely find room for more than one short chapter on mental defect.

scholarly journals I. The Croonian Lecture.—On the theory of the vertebrate skull

1859 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 381-457 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Biological Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Small Space ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Organic Structure ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
The Mind

The necessity of discussing so great a subject as the Theory of the Vertebrate Skull in the small space of time allotted by custom to a lecture, has its advantages as well as its drawbacks. As, on the present occasion, I shall suffer greatly from the disadvantages of the limitation, I will, with your permission, avail myself to the uttermost of its benefits. It will be necessary for me to assume much that I would rather demonstrate, to suppose known much that I would rather set forth and explain at length; but on the other hand, I may consider myself excused from entering largely either into the history of the subject, or into lengthy and controversial criticisms upon the views which are, or have been, held by others. The biological science of the last half-century is honourably distinguished from that of preceding epochs, by the constantly increasing prominence of the idea, that a community of plan is discernible amidst the manifold diversities of organic structure. That there is nothing really aberrant in nature; that the most widely different organisms are connected by a hidden bond; that an apparently new and isolated structure will prove, when its characters are thoroughly sifted, to be only a modification of something which existed before,—are propositions which are gradually assuming the position of articles of faith in the mind of the investigators of animated nature, and are directly, or by implication, admitted among the axioms of natural history.

Tendency of mass people to misunderstand (intentionally or not) the agony of the psychiatric patient and tormenting them as a subject of mockery with an emphasize on somatic-symptom disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deep Bhattacharjee
Keyword(s):  
Somatic Symptom ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Somatic Symptom Disorder ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
The People ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Affected Subject

Psychiatric disorders’ or as emphasized in the paper in the form of somatic-symptom disorder, a sub-category of Schizophrenia has been from the ancient of the human civilization, when the medicinal approach and treatment of the subject hasn’t been developed yet, the notion of the affected subject to be under some spiritual subjugation has automatically been implied on the minds of the people which leads to immense torture and torment of the subject by the society. However, in the modern medical scenario, the situation has shifted from spiritual/evilness to the extreme derision where it has been already implied on the healthy societies brain that, the subject is intentionally acting like a patient or it’s a ‘disease of the mind’ with no associated physical pain which being attributed to the tendency of late diagnosis and recovery, makes the subject a sheer block of ‘sarcasm’ among the healthy society where they tries their best to make ‘the fun out of him’ as regards to his continuous pain and suffering. This generally amplified by the delay in the starting of the treatment for the difficulty of the doctors to diagnose the disease, as not so developed instruments are still in their infancy to detect and derelict the mental disorders, where in most of the time, the golden period of diagnosis is either over or even if psychiatric treatment is initiated can lead to a more defocused effects as doctors itself finds it difficult to approach the right medicine to the disordered person, where, in case, they have to go from one doctor to another in the risk of a trial and error effect.

The Sexual and Reproductive Functions, Normal and Perverted, in Relation to Insanity. I. Menstruation: its Commencement, Irregularities, and Cessation. II. the Sexual Instinct and its Abuse. III. Pregnancy, Parturition, etc

1888 ◽  
Vol 34 (147) ◽  
pp. 383-393
Author(s):  
Campbell Clark
Keyword(s):  
Open Field ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Psychological Medicine ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Present Opportunity

In undertaking to introduce a discussion on this very large and important question, I am conscious of my inability to do it justice. No one can possibly cover the wide range of subjects comprised in it; and I am anxious rather to elicit the convictions of more experienced men than to obtrude my own crude and imperfect ideas. My purpose is, therefore, to state the case as briefly as possible, and to introduce questions for discussion in preference to merely ventilating my own ideas. In this way we may arrive at some common points of agreement and materially advance our knowledge of the subject. There can be no two opinions as to the advantage of bringing to a focus the collective experience and conclusions of the various sections of our profession interested in this field of research, and the present opportunity is a particularly good one. The title of the discussion embraces a great deal, and yet does not strictly include topics which might be considered relevant, particularly therapeutics. My aim at the outset will be to invite your special attention to a few questions only, and in order to make the most of our time and concentrate the discussion as much as possible I propose to take each division separately. The subject, viewed as a whole, is so far-reaching and practical as to possess uncommon interest, for it links together medicine and psychological medicine, it gives an open field of discussion to general medicine, obstetrics, and psychology, and it views insanity on its less speculative side, because the more materialistic functions are brought out in strong relief, and sometimes even overshadow the characters of mental disease.

Expert Systems in Medicne:Possible Future Effects

1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Potthoff ◽  
M. Rothemund ◽  
D. Schwefel ◽  
R. Engelbrecht ◽  
W. van Eimeren
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Expert Systems ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
General Medicine ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Actual Knowledge ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Health Insurance Industry

It should be pointed out that during the interviews most of the experts had positive expectations of ESM. The developers are more generally enthusiastic than the prospective users and affected parties who, especially in respect of the diffusion of ESM into practical application, only show a limited optimism.However, the representatives of the medical profession and the health insurance industry were convinced that ESM might contribute to cost-neutral increases of quality in out-patient and in-patient medicine. But we also understood them to say that they consider other developments in medicine to be overriding, for example, a tendency of general medicine towards a more family-oriented medicine and a reduced emphasis on technology-oriented medicine. In respect of the conception shared by developers as well as potential users that over-enthusiastic expectations should rather be restrained, we consider such a balanced expectation of positive effects of ESM to be adequate to the actual knowledge of the subject.

Alessandro Gavazzi: a barnabite friar and the risorgimento (Presidential Address)

1975 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 303-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basil Hall
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Address ◽  
Memento Mori ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Mind

Think nowHistory has many cunning passages, contrived corridorsAnd issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,Guides us by vanities. Think nowShe gives when our attention is distractedAnd what she gives, gives with such supple confusionsThat the giving famishes the craving. Gives too lateWhat’s not believed in, or if still believed,In memory only, reconsidered passion.Historians no doubt have problems enough without setting before themselves that ‘memento mori’ from Eliot, who, though he was describing an old man seeking to understand his own past, leaves nevertheless an echo in the mind disturbing to those who practise the historian’s craft. We assume a confidence which in our heart of hearts we do not always, or should not always, possess. Eliot’s words not only demonstrate the difficulty of one man understanding his own past, but also the historian’s difficulty in understanding those whom they select for questioning from among the vast multitudes of the silent dead, whose deeds, artifacts, ideas, passions, hopes and memories have died with them. We dig into the past, obtain data from archives, brush off the objects found, collect statistics, annotate, arrange, describe, establish a chronology – but do we effectively understand the dead, especially since we are affected by our own beliefs, customs and ideologies? We are, of course, all aware of this: we silently scorn the lecturer who raises these diffident hesitations. For we know our duty: we examine all that we can, we describe our findings, we annotate them, we draw conclusions, or leave our demonstrations to speak for themselves. There are reasons, as I shall hope to show, that these considerations – Eliot’s ominous words and our determination not to be disquieted by them – bear upon the subject of this paper, the almost forgotten Alessandro Gavazzi.

“Stonehenge in the Mind” and “Stonehenge on the Ground”:

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Roark
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Existing Structures ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mind

In Stone-Heng Restored (1655), Inigo Jones, the father of English neoclassicism, used drawings, histories, and questionable logic to argue that Stonehenge was built by the ancient Romans and that it originally exhibited perfect Platonic geometries. This argument was never given much credence, but by 1725 the subject matter and the architect had received enough attention that two book-length responses (a challenge and a defense) were published, and both were then republished in a single volume alongside Jones's original text. While most Jones scholars have neglected this work because of its logical and historical shortcomings, Ryan Roark argues in “Stonehenge in the Mind” and “Stonehenge on the Ground”: Reader, Viewer, and Object in Inigo Jones's Stone-Heng Restored (1655) that it was in fact exemplary of what made Jones, for many, a protomodern architect and scholar. Rather than viewing Jones's book as an earnest attempt to prove a historical inaccuracy, Roark considers it as an exercise in formal analysis, one that set the precedent for the contemporary pedagogical trend of using geometric simplifications of existing structures as a first step in new design. Jones's idiosyncratic reading of Stonehenge belied the idea that such analysis could be anything but intensely reliant on the subjectivity of both architect and viewer.

Insanity following Surgical Operations

1889 ◽  
Vol 35 (149) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. T. Dent
Keyword(s):  
Medical Science ◽  
Surgical Operation ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Surgical Measures ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Surgical Operations

So far as my researches extend little attention has been paid to the subject of this paper. Yet I think it would be rash to assume that what is unrecorded is necessarily rare, even in days when so much more is put into print than any of us can either read or mark, much less digest, and when the number of writers seems in danger of exceeding the number of readers. Insanity, in some degree, as a sequela of surgical operation, though certainly rare, is, I believe, less uncommon than usually supposed, and it is chiefly in the hope of eliciting additional information from others that I venture to record my own small experience. On two subjects medical science has still an infinite deal to learn: first, the influence of disease on the mind; secondly, the influence of mind on disease. In attempting to contribute a little to the first-mentioned subject, I can really deal only with a subdivision of it, viz., the effects that may be produced on the mind by surgical measures undertaken for the relief of disease.

scholarly journals Double Vision, Phosphenes and Afterimages

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-32
Author(s):  
Işık Sarıhan
Keyword(s):  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Double Vision ◽  
Phenomenal Experience ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mind

Pure representationalism or intentionalism for phenomenal experience is the theory that all introspectible qualitative aspects of a conscious experience can be analyzed as qualities that the experience non-conceptually represents the world to have. Some philosophers have argued that experiences such as afterimages, phosphenes and double vision are counterexamples to the representationalist theory, claiming that they are non- representational states or have non-representational aspects, and they are better explained in a qualia-theoretical framework. I argue that these states are fully representational states of a certain kind, which I call “automatically non-endorsed representations”, experiential states the veridicality of which we are almost never committed to, and which do not trigger explicit belief or disbelief in the mind of the subject. By investigating descriptive accounts of afterimages by two qualia theorists, I speculate that the mistaken claims of some anti-representationalists might be rooted in confusing two senses of the term “seeming”.

scholarly journals Exploring, modelling, and simulating the Feeling of Comfort in residential settings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
German Molina
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Building Science ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The People ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mind

<p><b>The fact that comfort is a subjective state of the mind is widely accepted by engineers, architects and building scientists. Despite this, capturing all the complexity, subjectivity and richness of this construct in models that are useful in building science contexts is far from straightforward. By prioritizing usability, building science has produced models of comfort (e.g., acoustic, visual and thermal) that overly simplify this concept to something nearly objective that can be directly associated with people’s physiology and measurable and quantifiable environmental factors. This is a contradiction because, even if comfort is supposed to be subjective, most of the complexity of “the subject” is avoided by focusing on physiology; and, even if comfort is supposed to reside in the mind, the cognitive processes that characterize the mind are disregarded. This research partially mitigates this contradiction by exploring people’s non-physical personal factors and cognition within the context of their comfort and by proposing a way in which they can be incorporated into building science research and practice. This research refers to these elements together—i.e., people’s non-physical personal factors and cognition—as “the mind”.</b></p> <p>This research proposes a new qualitative model of the Feeling of Comfort that embraces “the mind”. This model was developed from the results of a first study in which 18 people—from Chile and New Zealand—were asked to describe “a home with good daylight” and “a warm home” in their own words. These results were then replicated in a second study in which another group of 24 people—also from Chile and New Zealand—described “a home with good acoustic performance”, “a home with good air quality” and “a pleasantly cool home”. The Feeling of Comfort model not only was capable of making sense of the new data (gathered in this second study) but also proved to be simple enough to be useful in the context of comfort research and practice. For instance, it guided the development of a quantitative Feeling of Comfort model and also of a prototype building simulation tool that embraces “the mind” and thus can potentially estimate people’s Feeling of Comfort.</p> <p>This research concludes that embracing “the mind” is not only possible but necessary. The reason for this is that “the mind” plays a significant role in the development of people’s comfort. Thus, theories and models of comfort that ignore it fail to represent properly the concept of comfort held by the people for whom buildings are designed. However, incorporating “the mind” into building science’s research and practice implies embracing tools, research methods and conceptual frameworks that have historically not been used by such a discipline. Specifically, it concludes that building science should normalize a more holistic view of comfort and perform more exploratory and qualitative research.</p>

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