Some ideas return after the briefest of exiles: reductionism is back in vogue. Existential questions -- about who we are, about our origins and future, about what is valuable -- no longer require difficult soul searching, especially when straightforward answers are expected from the neurosciences. History is being rewritten with the brain as its centrepiece; the search for great men and big ideas of the past begins again. William Cullen (1710--90), whose work on neurosis was once part of the history of psychoanalysis, is now well placed to become part of such a neuro-history. This article attempts to subvert this process, by rebuilding the original meaning of neurosis through Cullen's physiological and medical works, in comparison with his predecessor, Robert Whytt (1714--66), and illustrating this meaning using one particular neurosis: hypochondriasis. The result is a more complicated version of neurosis which, importantly, carries significant insights into the nature and practice of medicine. Moreover, this article examines how Cullen's standing fell in the 1820s as British physicians and surgeons turned to an idea which promised to reform medicine: pathological anatomy. When these hopes faded, Cullen became a figure obsessed with the nerves. This image has survived to the present, a blank canvas onto which any theory can be projected. It also values precisely what Cullen warned against: simplistic explanations of the body and disease, and unthinking confidence in the next big idea or silver bullet. Neurosis was not simply a nervous ailment, but it is a warning against reductionism in history making.
...More
Chapter
Rocca, Julius;
(2007)
William Cullen (1710--1790) and Robert Whytt (1714--1766) on the Nervous System
(/isis/citation/CBB001032145/)
Thesis
Wild, Wayne;
(2001)
Medicine-by-post in eighteenth-century Britain: The changing rhetoric of illness in doctor-patient correspondence and literature
(/isis/citation/CBB001560926/)
Book
Wild, Wayne;
(2006)
Medicine-by-Post: The Changing Voice of Illness in Eighteenth-Century British Consultation Letters and Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB000930514/)
Chapter
Vickers, Neil;
(2011)
Aspects of Character and Sociability in Scottish Enlightenment Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB001251015/)
Article
Taylor, Georgette;
(2014)
Pedagogical Progeniture or Tactical Translation? George Fordyce's Additions and Modifications to William Cullen's Philosophical Chemistry---Part II
(/isis/citation/CBB001451132/)
Article
Taylor, Georgette;
(2008)
Marking Out a Disciplinary Common Ground: The Role of Chemical Pedagogy in Establishing the Doctrine of Affinity at the Heart of British Chemistry
(/isis/citation/CBB000831682/)
Thesis
Stelmackowich, Cindy Lee;
(2010)
Bodies of Knowledge: Nineteenth Century Anatomical Atlases, 1800--1860
(/isis/citation/CBB001562744/)
Book
Steinke, Hubert;
Boschung, Urs;
Pross, Wolfgang;
(2008)
Albrecht von Haller: Leben-Werk-Epoche
(/isis/citation/CBB001022101/)
Article
Lisner, Wiebke;
(2009)
Experimente am lebendigen Leib: Zur Frage der Vivisektion in deutschen und britischen medizinischen Wochenschriften 1919--1939
(/isis/citation/CBB001220576/)
Article
Berkowitz, Carin;
(2014)
Defining a Discovery: Priority and Methodological Controversy in Early Nineteenth-Century Anatomy
(/isis/citation/CBB001421511/)
Book
Bates, Alan W.;
(2010)
The Anatomy of Robert Knox: Murder, Mad Science and Medical Regulation in Nineteenth-Century Edinburgh
(/isis/citation/CBB001031569/)
Article
Francesco Brigo;
Mariano Martini;
(2022)
“Chi l’ha detto?”. Un caso emblematico di errata attribuzione
(/isis/citation/CBB615219276/)
Article
Emanuele Armocida;
Gianfranco Natale;
(2019)
Paolo Mascagni and Alessandro Moreschi: Who Discovered the Vascular Structure of Urethra? Anatomy of an Intellectual Property Dispute
(/isis/citation/CBB570354347/)
Book
Robert Woods;
Chris Galley;
(2014)
Mrs. Stone & Dr. Smellie: Eighteenth-Century Midwives and Their Patients
(/isis/citation/CBB020111962/)
Thesis
Richard Thomas Bellis;
(2019)
Making Anatomical Knowledge About Disease in Late Georgian Britain, from Dissection Table to the Printed Book and Beyond : Matthew Baillie's 'Morbid Anatomy' and Its Accompanying Engravings
(/isis/citation/CBB288181113/)
Chapter
Chamberlain, Andrew T.;
(2012)
Morbid Osteology: Evidence for Autopsies, Dissection and Surgical Training from the Newcastle Infirmary Burial Ground (1753--1845)
(/isis/citation/CBB001251801/)
Article
Hanson, Craig Ashley;
(2010)
Representing the Rhinoceros: The Royal Society between Art and Science in the Eighteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001032693/)
Chapter
Chaplin, Simon;
(2012)
Dissection and Display in Eighteenth-Century London
(/isis/citation/CBB001251806/)
Essay Review
Coppola, Al;
(2011)
Science/Spectacle
(/isis/citation/CBB001566424/)
Article
Neher, Allister;
(2010)
The Truth about Our Bones: William Cheselden's Osteographia
(/isis/citation/CBB001230199/)
Be the first to comment!