Article ID: CBB001420765

Cadaver Brains and Excesses in Baccho and Venere: Dementia Paralytica in Dutch Psychiatry (1870--1920) (2014)

unapi

This article explores the approach of dementia paralytica by psychiatrists in the Netherlands between 1870 and 1920 against the background of international developments. The psychiatric interpretation of this mental and neurological disorder varied depending on the institutional and social context in which it was examined, treated, and discussed by physicians. Psychiatric diagnoses and understandings of this disease had in part a social--cultural basis and can be best explained against the backdrop of the establishment of psychiatry as a medical specialty and the specific efforts of Dutch psychiatrists to expand their professional domain. After addressing dementia paralytica as a disease and why it drew so much attention in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, this essay discusses how psychiatrists understood dementia paralytica in asylum practice in terms of diagnosis, care, and treatment. Next we consider their pathological--anatomical study of the physical causes of the disease and the public debate on its prevalence and causes.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001420765/

Similar Citations

Article Morag Allan Campbell; (2017)
‘Noisy, restless and incoherent’: puerperal insanity at Dundee Lunatic Asylum (/isis/citation/CBB791023960/)

Book Chiang, Howard Hsueh-Hao; (2014)
Psychiatry and Chinese History (/isis/citation/CBB001422492/)

Chapter Valentin-Veron Toma; (2016)
Work and Occupation in Romanian Psychiatry, c. 1838-1945 (/isis/citation/CBB929069248/)

Article Artvinli, Fatih; (2014)
More Than a Disease: The History of General Paralysis of the Insane in Turkey (/isis/citation/CBB001420779/)

Book Susannah Cahalan; (2019)
The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness (/isis/citation/CBB484312893/)

Article Boyce, Niall; (2012)
A Secret History (/isis/citation/CBB001200870/)

Chapter Akira Hashimoto; (2016)
Work and Activity in Mental Hospitals in Modern Japan, c. 1868-2000 (/isis/citation/CBB282664098/)

Book Mary de Young; (2015)
Encyclopedia of Asylum Therapeutics, 1750–1950s (/isis/citation/CBB954758413/)

Book Ernst, Waltraud; Mueller, Thomas; (2010)
Transnational Psychiatries: Social and Cultural Histories of Psychiatry in Comparative Perspective, c. 1800--2000 (/isis/citation/CBB001232181/)

Chapter Ben Harris; (2016)
Therapeutic Work and Mental Illness in America, c. 1830-1970 (/isis/citation/CBB612225456/)

Article Zorzanelli, Rafaela Teixeira; (2010)
Neurastenia (/isis/citation/CBB001420499/)

Authors & Contributors
Ernst, Waltraud
Mary de Young
Thabane, Motlatsi
Priani, Egidio
Campbell, Morag Allan
Cahalan, Susannah
Concepts
Psychiatry
Therapeutic practice; therapy; treatment
Psychiatric hospitals
Mental disorders and diseases
Medicine and society
Science and society
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
Early modern
Modern
21st century
Places
United States
Scotland
Italy
Europe
United Kingdom
South Asia
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment