‘They accused me of strangling her’: epilepsy and violence debate in Croatia at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 460-472
Author(s):  
Martin Kuhar ◽  
Stella Fatović-Ferenčić
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Forensic Psychiatry ◽  
Biological Theory ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
Violent Behaviour ◽  
Theory Of Crime ◽  
The Brain

Nineteenth-century psychiatry shifted its focus to the brain as the seat of mental disorders. With a new understanding of mental disorders arose the need to consult forensic psychiatrists in cases of criminal acts committed by persons with mental illness. This article focuses on three murders committed by ‘epileptics’ at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries in Croatia. An analysis of these cases will help to situate forensic psychiatry at the turn of the century within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and reveal the authority that forensic experts wielded in the courts. We will argue that Cesare Lombroso’s biological theory of crime, as well as the influence of eugenicists and pharmaceutical companies, shaped the long-standing relationship between epilepsy and violent behaviour.

scholarly journals ON MENTAL ILLNESS AND BROKEN BRAINS

Think ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (58) ◽  
pp. 103-112
Author(s):  
Anneli Jefferson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Brain Cancer ◽  
World View ◽  
Brain Diseases ◽  
Brain Disorders ◽  
Empirical Question ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACTWe often hear that certain mental disorders are disorders of the brain, but it is not clear what this claim amounts to. Does it mean that they are like classic brain diseases such as brain cancer? I argue that this is not the case for most mental disorders. Neither does the claim that all mental disorders are brain disorders follow from a materialist world-view. The only plausible way of understanding mental disorders as brain disorders is a fairly modest one, where we label brain differences we find in mental illness as pathological based on their link to mental dysfunction. How many mental disorders will turn out to be brain disorders on this understanding is an empirical question.

scholarly journals The volume of changes in the cells of the brain under the influence of carbon monoxide poisoning

2020 ◽  
Vol VII (4) ◽  
pp. 198-242
Author(s):  
I. Spirtov
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning ◽  
Sense Organ ◽  
Healthy People ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
The Brain

The effect of carbon monoxide on the nervous system, obvious and in everyday, not particularly severe cases of poisoning with this gas, is illustrated by the extensive literature, growing from year to year, of cases where, after poisoning with carbon monoxide, severe pathological phenomena from the nervous system developed; At the same time, in one number of cases, such phenomena constituted a direct continuation of the poisoning, in other cases they developed after the first aftermath of poisoning passed and proceeded more or less prolonged, so to speak, a light difference, during which the subjects were poisoned, who were not healthy people in all relations. These post-mortem pathological phenomena capture both the intellectual sphere, as well as the motor and sensitive areas, namely, they were observed: ammesia, aphasia, stupor, dementia, further: general agitation, mental illness, similar to primary mental disorders and contractions, weakening of the sensitivity of one or another sense organ.

Legal psychopathology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Борис Алмазов
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Forensic Psychiatry ◽  
Court Decision ◽  
Medical Psychology ◽  
Expert Assessment ◽  
Law Schools

The traditionally understood framework of the discipline "forensic psychiatry" in the educational and legal field is rapidly expanding. Mental disorders that previously were attributed only to the eventual components of a court decision become legally relevant. This manual retains information about the expert assessment of mental illness, but focuses on mental disorders not excluding responsibility, but making it difficult to independently defend their rights and freedoms. The manual is intended for students of law schools and faculties, but may be interesting for students of social and medical psychology

Mitochondrial function and inflammation pathways in the neuroprogression of mental disorders

2019 ◽  
pp. 35-62
Author(s):  
Ana C. Andreazza ◽  
Rajas P. Kale ◽  
Angela Duong ◽  
Fabio Molina ◽  
Susannah J. Tye
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mitochondrial Function ◽  
Cellular Mechanisms ◽  
Cellular Debris ◽  
Efficient Communication ◽  
Increase Risk ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

Stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and inflammation are key pathophysiological processes contributing to neuroprogression in mental illness. These factors independently and collectively impact critical cellular mechanisms essential for healthy brain development and function. As these damaging processes continue, cellular debris (damaged DNA and proteins) accumulates, and neuronal integrity is impaired. In addition to this, the myelin sheath that encapsulates neurones to enable smooth and efficient communication throughout the brain is impaired. This chapter outlines how these factors are impacted by stress, inflammation, and mitochondrial function and how they work independently, and together, to increase risk for the development of mental illness, as well as to promote neuroprogression of the illness over time. We discuss how targeting these pathophysiological processes through interdependent factors such as the NLRP3 inflammasome, which sits at the intersection of these mechanistic pathways, may unlock opportunities to limit neuroprogression in the future.

Cross-cultural Psychiatry

1994 ◽  
Vol 165 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Dein
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Psychiatry ◽  
Emil Kraepelin ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Asian Populations ◽  
The One

“Insanity is then a part of the price we pay for civilisation. The causes of the one increase with the developments and results of the other” (Jarvis, 1851).Emil Kraepelin, while visiting southeast Asia at the turn of the century, noted the absence of depression among various Asian populations. He believed that mental disorders were organic diseases for which specific pathogens would ultimately be found. Despite the cultural variations in mental disorders he observed during his world trip in 1904, he considered mental disorder to be universal: “mental illness in Java showed broadly the same clinical picture as we see in our country … The overall similarity far outweighed the deviant features.”

scholarly journals Nutritional psychiatry: the present state of the evidence

2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Marx ◽  
Genevieve Moseley ◽  
Michael Berk ◽  
Felice Jacka
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Diet Quality ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Reverse Causality ◽  
Dietary Interventions ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural

Mental illness, including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, accounts for a significant proportion of global disability and poses a substantial social, economic and heath burden. Treatment is presently dominated by pharmacotherapy, such as antidepressants, and psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy; however, such treatments avert less than half of the disease burden, suggesting that additional strategies are needed to prevent and treat mental disorders. There are now consistent mechanistic, observational and interventional data to suggest diet quality may be a modifiable risk factor for mental illness. This review provides an overview of the nutritional psychiatry field. It includes a discussion of the neurobiological mechanisms likely modulated by diet, the use of dietary and nutraceutical interventions in mental disorders, and recommendations for further research. Potential biological pathways related to mental disorders include inflammation, oxidative stress, the gut microbiome, epigenetic modifications and neuroplasticity. Consistent epidemiological evidence, particularly for depression, suggests an association between measures of diet quality and mental health, across multiple populations and age groups; these do not appear to be explained by other demographic, lifestyle factors or reverse causality. Our recently published intervention trial provides preliminary clinical evidence that dietary interventions in clinically diagnosed populations are feasible and can provide significant clinical benefit. Furthermore, nutraceuticals including n-3 fatty acids, folate, S-adenosylmethionine, N-acetyl cysteine and probiotics, among others, are promising avenues for future research. Continued research is now required to investigate the efficacy of intervention studies in large cohorts and within clinically relevant populations, particularly in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar and anxiety disorders.

scholarly journals The spaces of truth and cathedral window light

Literator ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-118
Author(s):  
G. Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Romantic Period ◽  
Multiple Contexts ◽  
Western Development ◽  
Permanent Loss ◽  
The Church ◽  
Complex Expression

Major writers and painters of the Romantic period interpreted the church or cathedral in its organic and spiritual dimensions as a complex expression of a matured Christian civilization. Artists of the mid-nineteenth century continued to produce both secular and religious variations upon this established referentiality. Although divergent uses reciprocally reinforced the fascination for the central imagery of the church and its multiple contexts, they also came to suggest a deeper tension in Western development between what the church had meant in an earlier Europe and what it might mean for late modernity. The threat of a permanent loss of cultural values was an issue haunting Realist approaches. A crucial revision occurred when key Symbolist poets openly revived the first Romantic themes but treated them as contents available to a decidedly post-Romantic historical consciousness. There was an analogous revival of interest in the church as a culturally charged symbol in painting around the turn of the century. Although they might apply this poetic and pictorial heritage in strikingly different ways, writers of high Modernism such as Rilke, Proust, and Kafka understood its richness and importance.

scholarly journals Latent profiles of early developmental vulnerabilities in a New South Wales child population at age 5 years

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 530-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa J Green ◽  
Stacy Tzoumakis ◽  
Kristin R Laurens ◽  
Kimberlie Dean ◽  
Maina Kariuki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
New South ◽  
Criminal Offending ◽  
Parental History ◽  
South Wales ◽  
History Of

Objective: Detecting the early emergence of childhood risk for adult mental disorders may lead to interventions for reducing subsequent burden of these disorders. We set out to determine classes of children who may be at risk for later mental disorder on the basis of early patterns of development in a population cohort, and associated exposures gleaned from linked administrative records obtained within the New South Wales Child Development Study. Methods: Intergenerational records from government departments of health, education, justice and child protection were linked with the Australian Early Development Census for a state population cohort of 67,353 children approximately 5 years of age. We used binary data from 16 subdomains of the Australian Early Development Census to determine classes of children with shared patterns of Australian Early Development Census–defined vulnerability using latent class analysis. Covariates, which included demographic features (sex, socioeconomic status) and exposure to child maltreatment, parental mental illness, parental criminal offending and perinatal adversities (i.e. birth complications, smoking during pregnancy, low birth weight), were examined hierarchically within latent class analysis models. Results: Four classes were identified, reflecting putative risk states for mental disorders: (1) disrespectful and aggressive/hyperactive behaviour, labelled ‘misconduct risk’ ( N = 4368; 6.5%); (2) ‘pervasive risk’ ( N = 2668; 4.0%); (3) ‘mild generalised risk’ ( N = 7822; 11.6%); and (4) ‘no risk’ ( N = 52,495; 77.9%). The odds of membership in putative risk groups (relative to the no risk group) were greater among children from backgrounds of child maltreatment, parental history of mental illness, parental history of criminal offending, socioeconomic disadvantage and perinatal adversities, with distinguishable patterns of association for some covariates. Conclusion: Patterns of early childhood developmental vulnerabilities may provide useful indicators for particular mental disorder outcomes in later life, although their predictive utility in this respect remains to be established in longitudinal follow-up of the cohort.

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