scholarly journals Psychiatry and the dark side: eugenics, Nazi and Soviet psychiatry

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Luty
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
History Of Psychiatry ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Thomas Szasz

SummaryPsychiatrist Thomas Szasz fought coercion (compulsory detention) and denied that mental illness existed. Although he was regarded as a maverick, his ideas are much more plausible when one discovers that between 1939 and 1941, up to 100 000 mentally ill people, including 5000 children, were killed in Nazi Germany. In the course of the Nazi regime, over 400 000 forced sterilisations took place, mainly of people with mental illnesses. Other countries, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, had active forced sterilisation programmes and eugenics laws. Similar laws were implemented in the USA, with up to 25 000 forced sterilisations. These atrocities were enabled and facilitated by psychiatrists of the time and are only one example of the dark side of the profession. This article reviews some of these aspects of the history of psychiatry, including Germany's eugenics programme and the former USSR's detention of dissidents under the guise of psychiatric treatment.

The history of psychiatry as a medical specialty

2012 ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Pierre Pichot
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Medical Specialty ◽  
History Of Psychiatry ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Historian ◽  
Underlying Reality

The history of psychiatry as a medical specialty has to be distinguished from the history of psychiatric medical knowledge which began in ancient Greece with the birth of medicine as a science. For more than 2000 years, only physicians observed and treated mental illnesses, and institutions were created in which the ‘lunatics’ and the ‘insane’ were received. But, as rightly pointed out by Kraepelin, the truth is that psychiatry was not really a medical specialty. One can argue about the precise date of the appearance of psychiatry as a specific field of medicine and of the psychiatrist as a specialist, devoting his professional competence exclusively to the care of the mentally ill. Denis Leigh recognizes that ‘some degree of specialization occurred [in England] among respectable physicians’ in the middle of the eighteenth century when the monopoly of Bethlem was broken and new ‘lunatic hospitals’, such as St Luke’s were opened. On the other hand, the American historian Jan Goldstein stresses that in France the language, as an exact reflection of the underlying reality, began to use expressions such as homme spécial to describe a physician specializing in a branch of medicine such as psychiatry only around 1830. This chapter charts the history of psychiatry as a medical specialty from its beginnings to the present day.

Thomas Szasz

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Insanity Defense ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
History Of ◽  
Thomas Szasz

This anthology takes a multidisciplinary approach to examining the legacy of the controversial psychiatrist and libertarian philosopher Thomas Szasz (1920-2012), whose mordant criticism of psychiatry challenged the very concept of mental illness and the practice of coercive psychiatric treatment and some tenets of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. The international spectrum of contributors represents a wide variety of viewpoints in psychiatry, philosophy, and the history of ideas. They discuss the viability of interpretations of mental illness, especially with reference to specific conditions such as schizophrenia; the legal and ethical implications of Szasz’s thought, particularly for the insanity defense; several aspects of the suicide debate; questions of accountability, responsibility, and psychopathy; thinkers who influenced him; and his influences on others.

Agency, mental illness, and psychiatry: A response to Thomas Szasz

Thomas Szasz ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 65-81
Author(s):  
Robert W. Daly
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Clinical Psychiatry ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Medical Specialty ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Problems In Living ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Thomas Szasz

Szasz’s understanding of persons as agents underwrites his ideas about mental illness and clinical psychiatry as a medical specialty. He asserts that the phenomena of mental illnesses, including suffering, signal “problems in living” or difficulties in determining the best use of one’s agential powers. The goals of the relationship are to enhance the client’s knowledge of his or her personality, to refine his intentions and sense of responsibility for his “symptoms” and other actions, and to achieve his aims and satisfy his desires, as long as he does not, by his actions, harm others. For the author of this chapter and other clinicians, the experience of phenomena exhibited by persons judged to be mentally ill are, to some extent and sense, apprehended as events that happen, rather than as actions authored by the person as agent. These untoward activities suggest a undesirable organismic condition of a person as agent, a diminution of the agent’s capacity for living a life, the signal of a organismic disorder, a problem with the human organismic equipment for living a life—not solely a problem about the best use of that equipment (as Szasz contends) but a state of ill health and a suffering person in need of treatment.

Do no harm in due process – a historical analysis of social determinates of institutionalization in the USA

2021 ◽  
pp. 0957154X2110346
Author(s):  
Tyler Durns
Keyword(s):  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Involuntary Hospitalization ◽  
Fundamental Function ◽  
Cultural Paradigms ◽  
Do No Harm ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Legislative Amendments

Involuntary hospitalization has been a fundamental function of psychiatric care for mentally ill persons in the USA for centuries. Procedural and judicial practices of inpatient psychiatric treatment and civil commitment in the USA have served as a by-product of socio-political pressures that demanded constant reform throughout history. The origin of modern commitment laws can best be understood through the lens of cultural paradigms that led to their creation and these suggest caution for future legislative amendments.

The History of Unreason

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Samuel Teague ◽  
Peter Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
History Of

This chapter reflects on the importance of the historical narrative of mental illness, arguing that Western countries have sought new ways to confine the mentally ill in the post-asylum era, namely through the effects of stigma and medicalization. The walls are invisible, when once they were physical. The chapter outlines how health and illness can be understood as socially constructed illustrating how mental health has been constructed uniquely across cultures and over time. To understand this process more fully, it is necessary to consider the history of madness, a story of numerous social flashpoints. The trajectories of two primary mental health narratives are charted in this chapter. The authors argue that these narratives have played, and continue to play, an important role in the social construction of mental illness. These narratives are “confinement” and “individual responsibility.” Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Roy Porter, the authors describe how Western culture has come to consider the mentally ill as a distinct, abnormal other.

The History of the Treatment of Mental Illness

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Lauren Mizock ◽  
Zlatka Russinova
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Shock Therapy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Models Of Care ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

Chapter 1 reviews the history of psychiatric treatment of people with mental illness in the United States and Western Europe, highlighting past perspectives in care, such as ancient trephination and exorcism during the demonology era, humorism in early Greek and Roman thought, a return to demonological perspectives in the Middle Ages, as well as mesmerism and psychoanalysis in the 19th and 20th centuries. The 20th-century biological perspective is described, including the use of insulin shock therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and lobotomy. Next, the development of more humane treatment approaches is discussed, such as the moral treatment movement of the 1800s. The ex-patient’s movement of the 1970s is reviewed, leading up to the contemporary recovery-oriented and psychosocial rehabilitation models of care. The impact of stigma on the acceptance of serious mental illness is explored throughout this history. Discussion questions, activities, and diagrams are also included.

scholarly journals MON-252 Pituitary Tumor Apoplexy Presenting with Acute Psychosis

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Mercedes Pineyro ◽  
Patrica Agüero ◽  
Florencia Irazusta ◽  
Claudia Brun ◽  
Paula Duarte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Pituitary Tumor ◽  
Psychiatric Treatment ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Acute Psychosis ◽  
Sellar Mass ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pituitary Tumor Apoplexy

Abstract Background: Pituitary tumors (PT) can present with neuropsychiatric symptoms. It has been associated with hormonal changes, as well as extension of the tumor to the diencephalon. Psychopathology has been reported in up to 83% in Cushing Disease (CD) and 35% in acromegaly (ACR). Psychiatric disorders (depression, anxiety and psychosis) have been reported up to 77% in CD and 63% in ACR. We present a rare case of a patient presenting with acute psychosis and a PT apoplexy. Case: A 27 year-old Caucasian female with a PMH of primary hypothyroidism presented with a 15-day history of delusions. She had delusional ideas on the subject of harm and prejudice, persecutory and mystical-religious. The mechanism was mainly intuitive and interpretive with false acknowledgments. She also had sleep disturbance, death ideation and subacute alteration of consciousness. There was no history of substance abuse or psychiatric disorders. She did not report headaches, visual disturbances, symptoms of hormone hypersecretion or hypopituitarism. She had regular menses on BCP. She had no family history of mental illnesses. Physical exam revealed reluctance, latency in responses and bradypsychia. She did not have acromegalic or cushingoid features. She was diagnosed with acute psychosis with atypical features so a brain CT was performed, which showed a sellar mass. Pituitary MRI revealed a sellar mass measuring 15x12x13 mm, with suprasellar extension, optic chiasm compression, hyperintense on T1- and hypointense on T2-weighted imaging compatible with subacute hemorrhage. She was treated with neuroleptics and benzodiazepines. Lab work revealed high prolactin (PRL) (114ng/dl), and normal 8 AM cortisol, FT4, LH, FSH and IGF-1 levels. Repeated PRL was 31,6 ng/dl after changing psychiatric treatment to aripiprazole. Her psychiatric symptoms improved. We postulate a diagnosis of PT apoplexy that presented with acute psychosis. In relation to the nature of the PT we postulate a non functioning pituitary adenoma (NFA) or a partial resolution of a prolactinoma after apoplexy. A follow up MRI is pending. Discussion: Infrequently, psychiatric symptoms may be the primary manifestation of brain tumors. Patients with PT have been reported to have altered quality of life, reduced coping strategies, increased prevalence of psychopathological alterations and maladaptive personality disorders. In addition, they can present with psychotic symptoms, mostly reported with hormone excess (GH and cortisol). Psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and neurosis have been reported in NFA and prolactinomas. However, it is not clear a higher prevalence of psychiatric illnesses in these tumors. To our knowledge this is the first case of a pituitary tumor apoplexy presenting with acute psychosis. Conclusion: Psychiatric symptoms can be the first manifestation of PT, so atypical presentations should warrant further workup with brain imaging.

A social history of serious mental illness

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 584-592
Author(s):  
Brendan Daugherty ◽  
Katherine Warburton ◽  
Stephen M. Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social History ◽  
Serious Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reform And Innovation ◽  
Serious Mental Illnesses

Despite medical, technological, and humanitarian advances, the criminalization of those with serious mental illness continues. This is not an isolated phenomenon. The benefits of treatment reform and innovation are difficult to maintain or sometimes outright harmful. Across time and geography, the care of those with serious mental illness tends towards maltreatment, be it criminalization or other forms of harm. We present a social history of serious mental illness, along with the idea that the treatment of serious mental illness is a Sisyphean task—perpetually pushing a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll down and start again. The history is provided as a basis for deeper reflection of treatment, and treatment reform, of those with serious mental illnesses.

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