Article ID: CBB328347072

The Historical Origins of the Vegetative State: Received Wisdom and the Utility of the Text (2017)

unapi

The persistent vegetative state (PVS) is one of the most iconic and misunderstood phrases in clinical neuroscience. Coined as a diagnostic category by Scottish neurosurgeon Bryan Jennett and American neurologist Fred Plum in 1972, the phrase “vegetative” first appeared in Aristotle’s treatise On the Soul (circa mid-fourth century BCE). Aristotle influenced neuroscientists of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, Xavier Bichat and Walter Timme, and informed their conceptions of the vegetative nervous system. Plum credits Bichat and Timme in his use of the phrase, thus putting the ancient and modern in dialogue. In addition to exploring Aristotle’s definition of the “vegetative” in the original Greek, we put Aristotle in conversation with his contemporaries—Plato and the Hippocratics—to better apprehend theories of mind and consciousness in antiquity. Utilizing the discipline of reception studies in classics scholarship, we demonstrate the importance of etymology and historical origin when considering modern medical nosology.

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Authors & Contributors
Casper, Stephen T.
Karakis, Ioannis
Waclawik, Andrew J.
Shorvon, Simon
Rossor, Martin
Nadeem Toodayan
Concepts
Neurology
Neurosciences
Neurological diseases
Neurosurgery; psychosurgery
Psychiatry
Brain
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
Modern
Ancient
Places
Manitoba (Canada)
London (England)
Netherlands
Greece
Germany
France
Institutions
Queen Square, London
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
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