The historians, classicists and psychiatrists who have come together to produce Mental Disorders in the Classical World aim to explain how the Greeks and their Roman successors conceptualized, diagnosed and treated mental disorders. The Greeks initiated the secular understanding of mental illness, and have left us a large body of penetrating and thought-provoking writing on the subject, ranging in time from Homer to the sixth century AD. With the conceptual basis of modern psychiatry once again under intense debate, we need to learn from other rational approaches even when they lack modern scientific underpinnings. Meanwhile this volume adds a rich chapter to the cultural and medical history of antiquity. The contributors include a high proportion of the best-regarded scholars in this field, together with papers by some of its rising stars.
| Acknowledgements |
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ix | |
| Notes on Contributors |
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xi | |
| Abbreviations |
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xvii | |
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Thinking about Mental Disorders in Classical Antiquity |
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1 | (26) |
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PART I CURRENT PROBLEMS IN THE CLASSIFICATION OF MENTAL ILLNESS |
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`Carving Nature at the Joints': The Dream of a Perfect Classification of Mental Illness |
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27 | (14) |
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If Only the Ancients Had Had DSM, All Would Have Been Crystal Clear: Reflections on Diagnosis |
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41 | (20) |
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PART II GREEK CLASSIFICATIONS |
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The Early Greek Medical Vocabulary of Insanity |
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61 | (36) |
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The Typology and Aetiology of Madness in Ancient Greek Medical and Philosophical Writing |
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97 | (22) |
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119 | (10) |
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What Is a Mental Illness, and How Can It Be Treated? Galen's Reply as a Doctor and Philosopher |
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129 | (18) |
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Disturbing Connections: Sympathetic Affections, Mental Disorder, and the Elusive Soul in Galen |
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147 | (30) |
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Plato on Madness and the Good Life |
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177 | (18) |
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PART III PARTICULAR SYNDROMES |
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Mental Disorder and the Perils of Definition: Characterizing Epilepsy in Greek Scientific Discourse (5th--4th Centuries BCE) |
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195 | (28) |
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Medical Epistemology and Melancholy: Rufus of Ephesus and Miskawayh |
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223 | (22) |
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`Quem nos furorem, μελαγχoλiαν illi vocant': Cicero on Melancholy |
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245 | (20) |
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Fear of Flute Girls, Fear of Falling |
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265 | (20) |
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PART IV SYMPTOMS, CURES AND THERAPY |
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Greek and Roman Hallucinations |
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285 | (22) |
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Cure and (In)curability of Mental Disorders in Ancient Medical and Philosophical Thought |
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307 | (32) |
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Philosophical Therapy as Preventive Psychological Medicine |
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339 | (24) |
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PART V FROM HOMER TO ATTIC TRAGEDY |
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From Homeric ate to Tragic Madness |
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363 | (32) |
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395 | (18) |
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PART VI MENTAL DISORDERS AND RESPONSIBILITY |
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Mental Illness, Moral Error, and Responsibility in Late Plato |
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413 | (14) |
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The Rhetoric of the Insanity Plea |
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427 | (14) |
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441 | (20) |
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The Psychological Impact of Disasters in the Age of Justinian |
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461 | (14) |
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| Bibliography |
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475 | (32) |
| Index |
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507 | |
W.V. Harris is Shepherd Professor of History at Columbia University and Director of the university's Center for the Ancient Mediterranean. He has written widely on psychological aspects of ancient history. In 2008 he received a Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award, which has helped to finance research into mental disorders in antiquity.
Contributors: Véronique Boudon-Millot, Christoper Gill, W.V. Harris, Brooke Holmes, Julian C. Hughes, Jacques Jouanna, George Kazantzidis, Helen King, David Konstan, Roberto Lo Presti, Glenn W. Most, Vivian Nutton, Peter Pormann, Suzanne Said, Maria Michela Sassi, Bennett Simon, Chiara Thumiger, Jerry Toner, Peter Toohey, Philip van der Eijk, and Katja Vogt.
