The electroshock triangle: disputes about the ECT apparatus prototype and its display in the 1960s

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-324
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Sirgiovanni ◽  
Alessandro Aruta
Keyword(s):  
History Of Medicine ◽  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
American Psychiatry ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S

In the early 1960s, a climate of public condemnation of electroconvulsive therapy was emerging in the USA and Europe. In spite of this, the electroshock apparatus prototype, introduced in Rome in 1938, was becoming hotly contended. This article explores the disputes around the display of the electroshock apparatus prototype in the summer of 1964 and sheds new light on the triangle of personalities that shaped its future: Karl and William Menninger, two key figures of American psychiatry in Topeka; their competitor, Adalberto Pazzini, the founder of the Sapienza Museum of the History of Medicine in Rome; and, between them, Lucio Bini, one of the original inventors of ECT, who died unexpectedly that summer.

From the Madhouse to the Docu-Museum

Nuncius ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Sirgiovanni ◽  
Alessandro Aruta
Keyword(s):  
History Of Medicine ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Electroconvulsive Therapy ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Mental Diseases ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract The first electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) device for the treatment of psychiatric disorders was introduced in 1938 by Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini, two neuropsychiatrists at the Clinic for Nervous and Mental Diseases, La Sapienza University (Rome). No trace of what became of this device after its use at the clinic can be found until the 1960s, when it appears in a silent black-and-white video dedicated to the university’s recently rehoused and completely renovated Museum of the History of Medicine (MHM), where Cerletti’s original prototype is on display today. However, there is no record of the circumstances under which the electroshock apparatus prototype was transferred from the Clinic of Neuropsychiatry to the museum. Our investigation of this intriguing mystery has uncovered a number of pertinent details that allow us to view the history of the ECT device in a new light. It also emerges that Adalberto Pazzini, the founder of the MHM, played a larger role than was previously thought in this story.

scholarly journals Emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union in the 1960-1970s through the eyes of the American press

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-160
Author(s):  
Alexey V. Antoshin ◽  
Dmitry L. Strovsky
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
American Press ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
First Time

The article analyzes the features of Soviet emigration and repatriation in the second half of the 1960s through the early 1970s, when for the first time after a long period of time, and as a result of political agreements between the USSR and the USA, hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews were able to leave the Soviet Union for good and settle in the United States and Israel. Our attention is focused not only on the history of this issue and the overall political situation of that time, but mainly on the peculiarities of this issue coverage by the leading American printed media. The reference to the media as the main empirical source of this study allows not only perceiving the topic of emigration and repatriation in more detail, but also seeing the regularities of the political ‘face’ of the American press of that time. This study enables us to expand the usual framework of knowledge of emigration against the background of its historical and cultural development in the 20th century.

scholarly journals Russell Hamilton’s Voices from an Empire: A Pioneering Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Brookshaw
Keyword(s):  
African Literature ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Portuguese Literature ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Uk

The study of African literature in Portuguese was a largely vacant field in universities in the USA and the UK in the 1960s, in contrast to the emerging study of Anglophone and Francophone African literatures, which were well under way as both Britain and France completed their processes of decolonization. In the 1960s, Gerald Moser had raised awareness of individual writers such as the neo-realist novelist Castro Soromenho, and Clive Willis had translated the ethnographic tales of Óscar Ribas; however, Russell Hamilton was the first to write a comprehensive, cohesive, and balanced study of the field in Voices from an Empire: A History of Afro-Portuguese Literature.

New York City’s window guard policy: four decades of success

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. i14-i18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amita Toprani ◽  
Martha Robinson ◽  
James K Middleton III ◽  
Ali Hamade ◽  
Thomas Merrill
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Tort Liability ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Programme Staff

BackgroundPreventing child falls from windows is easily accomplished by installing inexpensive window-limiting devices but window falls remain a common cause of child injuries. This article describes the history and evolution of the New York City (NYC) window guard rule,which requires building owners to install window guards in apartments housing children aged ≤10 years. The NYC window guard rule was the first directive of its kind in the USA when it was adopted in 1976, and it has led to a dramatic and long-lasting reduction in child window fall-related injuries and deaths.MethodsData about the history of the window guard rule were obtained by reviewing programmatic records, correspondence, legal decisions and the published literature. In addition, key informant interviews were conducted with programme staff.Results and DiscussionThis article describes each stage of policy development, starting with epidemiological studies defining the scope of the problem in the 1960s and pilot-testing of the window guard intervention. We describe the adoption, implementation and enforcement of the rule. In addition, we show how the rule was modified over time and document the rule’s impact on window fall incidence in NYC. We describe litigation that challenged the rule’s constitutionality and discuss the legal arguments used by opponents of the rule. Finally, we discuss criminal and tort liability as drivers of compliance and summarise lessons learnt.

Andrzej Walicki. Polskie zmagania z wolnością [Polish Troubles in Freedom]

1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 258-259
Author(s):  
Stanisław Obirek
Keyword(s):  
Social Thought ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Polish Academy ◽  
Marxist Philosophy ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
National University ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The University

Profesor Andrzej Walicki, born in 1930, is a historian of philosophy and social thought connected with the so called „Warsaw School of the History of Ideas" prevalent during the 1960s. His field of specialization is the history of Russian and Polish thought and also that of Marxist philosophy. Until 1981, he was professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology PAN (Polish Academy of Science). During the time of martial law, Walicki was in Australia as a visiting professor of the Australian National University of Canberra. In 1986, he started working at the University of Notre Dame in the USA as chief of the chair of the history of ideas, where he continued to work until 1999, the vear of his retirement.

scholarly journals Public Islam in the Contemporary World: A View on the American Case

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Rhys H. Williams
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Order ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Case ◽  
The 1960S

The article reviews the status of the highly diverse community of American Muslims, with reference to US national identity and immigration history, history of Islam in the USA, and civil society organization. It is found that on average, and after the civil right movement of the 1960s, Muslims are very well assimilated into the US society and economy, in which the specific American civil society and religious organizations play an important enabling part, providing networks and inroads to society for newcomers as well as vehicles for preserving ethniccultural distinctiveness. This broad pattern of development has not changed in the aftermath of 9/11 and ensuing wars on terror. Compared with the Nordic context, where Muslims are often considered challenging to a secular social order, American Muslims do not stand out as more or differently religious, or any less American, than other religious communities. It is tentatively concluded that, downsides apart, US national identity and civil society structure could be more favorable for the social integration of Muslims than the Nordic welfare state model.

scholarly journals Gerald McCann: The Rediscovery of a Fashion Designer

Costume ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Almond ◽  
Caroline Riches
Keyword(s):  
Royal College ◽  
Fashion Industry ◽  
Treasure Trove ◽  
Fashion Designer ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Fashion Designers

This article was prompted by the discovery of the archive of international fashion designer Gerald McCann, hidden in a garage in Fleetwood, Lancashire, UK. The contents of the archive revealed a treasure trove of press cuttings, photographs, fashion drawings and interviews as well as designs and costings from a once well-known designer, whose significance to the global fashion industry is sparsely documented and largely forgotten. The article reveals the history of the designer, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in the 1950s, during the tenure of Professor Madge Garland, and forged a career at the heart of ‘Swinging London’ in the 1960s. He was lured to the USA in the 1970s, returning to the UK in the 1990s as a designer for House of Fraser and Harrods. The research offers the first significant assessment of McCann's position in global fashion and the value and relevance of his legacy, as well as exploring the rationale for documenting the history of forgotten fashion designers.

History of the Borderline Diagnosis

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Mary C. Zanarini
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Symptom Profile ◽  
American Psychiatry ◽  
Broad Concept ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Trauma Disorders ◽  
Borderline Diagnosis

The borderline diagnosis was first described by Alfred Stern in 1938. However, “borderline personality disorder” (BPD) did not enter the official nomenclature of American psychiatry until 1980. Between these two time points, psychoanalysts and psychiatrists carefully described aspects of borderline psychopathology, particularly cognitive symptoms. Two of the most careful and influential descriptions of the borderline diagnosis in the 1960s and 1970s were those of Otto Kernberg, who described the broad concept of borderline personality organization (BPO), and John Gunderson, who described the affective, cognitive, impulsive, and interpersonal symptoms of BPD. After 1980, BPD was often described as being a subthreshold variant of various diagnostic spectrums (e.g., mood disorders, impulsive disorders, trauma disorders) that were in vogue at that time. However, BPD is now commonly accepted as a well-validated disorder with a characteristic symptom profile that distinguishes it from other disorders, including other personality disorders.

scholarly journals The Right to Write the History: Disputes over the History of Medicine in France – 20th-21st Centuries

2017 ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Corinne Doria
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
History Of Medicine ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
The Third ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Human And Social Sciences ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Right ◽  
The 19Th Century

This article reflects on the history of medicine as an academic discipline. It analyzes in particular the debates that took place in France between the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. The first part recalls the main features of the discussions about the history of medicine since it was identified as an autonomous discipline up to the epistemological turn that, in the middle of the 19th century, opposed partisans of a “philological and scientific” to partisans of a “heroic” history of medicine. The second part deals with the debates that began in France in the 1960s-1970s over the legitimacy of a history of medicine written by physicians, and the foundation of a history of medicine written by professional historians. The third part proposes a reflection on the future of research and teaching in this field in France, and highlights the need for cooperation between physicians and specialists in the human and social sciences.

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