Phrenitis and the pathology of the mind in Western medical thought : (fifth century BCE to twentieth century CE) / Chiara Thumiger.

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Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 20 Nov 2023).

Preface and methodological issues -- Phrenitis in Classical (5th-4th century BCE) and Hellenistic (3rd-1st century BCE) medicine -- Psychology and delocalising themes. Asclepiades, Celsus and Caelius Aurelianus -- Theoretical aspects of Imperial nosology : localization, semiotics, chronology, etiology (1st-6th century CE) -- Phrenitic people : patients and therapies in Imperial-age and Late-antique cultures (1st-6th century CE) -- Quasi phreneticus : phrenitis in non-medical sources in Imperial-age and Lateantique cultures (1st century BCE-7th century CE) -- The Byzantine and medieval periods : medical receptions of phrenitis in Greek, Latin and Semitic languages (6th-14th century CE) -- The construction of the phrenitic in larger society : from the medieval to the Early-modern period -- Phrenitis in the modern and Early-modern worlds : anatomy, pathology and the survival of Graeco-Roman medicine (16th-19th century CE) -- The modern age : the 'death' of phrenitis.

Phrenitis is ubiquitous in ancient medicine and philosophy. Galen mentions the disease innumerable times, patristic authors take it as a favourite allegory of human flaws, and no ancient doctor fails to diagnose it and attempt its cure. Yet the nature of this once famous disease has not been understood properly by scholars. This book provides the first full history of phrenitis. In doing so, it surveys ancient ideas about the interactions between body and soul, both in health and in disease. It also addresses ancient ideas about bodily health, mental soundness and moral 'goodness', and their heritage in contemporary psychiatric ideas. Readers will encounter an exciting narrative about health, illness and care as embedded in ancient 'life', but will also be forced to reflect critically on our contemporary ideas of what it means to be 'insane'. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.