Historical Origins of the Concept of Neurosis

The historical evolution of the concept of neurosis can be traced from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries where Pi?ero details its dependence upon fundamental medical concepts such as cause, function and regulation. This book gives a clear view of the meaning of the term neurosis historically and in modern times, and shows how the concept has been created and modified in response to the theoretical developments that have occurred in medicine over two centuries. It will be of great use to psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, and historians of medicine and science, and to general historians. Cover......Page 1 Frontmatter......Page 2 Contents......Page 6 Dedication......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 1 - The concept of neurosis......Page 14 The starting point: the views of Willis and Sydenham on `Hysterical and hypochondriacal distempers'......Page 15 The consolidation of the concept of `nervous disease'......Page 18 The concept of neurosis in Cullen......Page 24 The concept of neurosis from Cullen to the beginning of the anatomoclinical period......Page 29 Absence of the concept of neurosis in the work of the followers of `Naturphilosophie'......Page 38 The concept of `nervous disease' in Reil......Page 39 The concept of neurosis in the work of Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland and of other eclectic authors......Page 43 The concept of neurosis during the transition between romantic and anatomoclinical medicine: Johann Lucas Schönlein and his school......Page 48 Pinel's work as the starting point of the anatomoclinical view of the neuroses......Page 57 The concept of neurosis during the first anatomoclinical period. Georget's revision......Page 62 The anatomoclinical concept of neurosis from Georget to Charcot: `functional localization'......Page 66 4 - The physiopathological view and the concept of neurosis......Page 72 Broussais's `Médecine physiologique'......Page 73 The disappearance of the term `neurosis' from British medicine......Page 76 The concept of `spinal irritation'......Page 77 The `reflex functional nervous diseases'......Page 81 From `intermediate neuroses' to neurasthenia......Page 85 The so-called `vasomotor and trophic neuroses'......Page 88 Endnotes......Page 90 References......Page 100 Index......Page 118 The historical evolution of the concept of neurosis can be traced from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries where Piñero details its dependence upon fundamental medical concepts such as cause, function and regulation. This book gives a clear view of the meaning of the term neurosis historically and in modern times, and shows how the concept has been created and modified in response to the theoretical developments that have occurred in medicine over two centuries. It will be of great use to psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, and historians of medicine and science, and to general historians