The Etiology of the Illnesses of the Psyche in the Hippocratic Texts

Niki Papavramidou

Abstract


The Hippocratic Corpus played a key role to the disengagement of illness from the divine element that was believed to be to cause of all illnesses and injuries. Especially for the illnesses of the psyche (some call it “self” or “soul”), the Hippocratic physicians managed to recognize their biological origin and to create a “primitive” nosological structure. The aim of this paper is to identify the etiological factors of the illnesses of the psyche, according to the Hippocratic authors and to correlate them to modern medical observations. The Hippocratic physicians enumerated certain etiological factors for the occurrence of the illnesses of the psyche: imbalance of the humours, injuries of the head, extreme emotions, along with environmental features that were supposed to favor the appearance of such illnesses, such as the climate, the quality of the water, the winds, etc.


Keywords: Hippocratic medicine; History of medicine; history of psychiatry; psyche

 


Full Text:

PDF

References


Homer. The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1919. Book 23, line 12.

Woods M. Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics II. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1992. p. 23.

Inwood B. The poem of Empedocles. Toronto: University of Toronto Press; 2001. p. 207.

Clark G. Iamblichus On the Pythagorean life. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press; 1989. p. 14.

Temkin O. The falling sickness. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press; 1971. p. 56.

Hippocrate. Lettres. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 9. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1861. p. 393-8, 384-6.

Hippocrate. De la maladie sacrée. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 6. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1849. p. 392-7, 371-81.

Hippocrate. Aphorismes. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 4. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1844. p. 580-3, 492-7, 500-3, 576-7, 568-9.

Hippocrate. Des lieux dans l’homme. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 6. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1849. p. 324-5, 328-31.

Hippocrate. Des airs, des eaux et des lieux. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 2. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1840. p. 14-23.

Hippocrate. De la génération. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 7. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1851. p. 484-5.

Hippocrate. Des plaies de tête. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 3. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1841. p. 228-35, 250-5.

Hippocrate. Epidémies V. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 5. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1846. p. 226-7, 236-7, 272-3.

Hippocrate. Prénotions Coaques. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 5. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1846. p. 624-5, 696-7, 702-3.

Hippocrate. Prorrhétique I. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 5. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1846. p. 550-3.

Hippocrate. Du régime dans les maladies aigues. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 2. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1840. p. 254-65.

Hippocrate. Des maladies I. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 6. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1849. p. 200-1.

Hippocrate. Des maladies des femmes. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 8. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1853. p. 14-22.

Hippocrate. De la nature de la femme. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 7. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1851. p. 314-6.

Hippocrate. Des crises. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 9. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1861. p. 294-5.

Hippocrate. Prorrhétique II. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 9. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1861. p. 8-10.

Hippocrate. Epidémies VI. In: Littré E, editor. Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate. Vol. 5. Paris: J.B. Baillière; 1846. p. 354-7.

Gill C. Ancient psychotherapy. History of Ideas 1985; 46(3):307-325.

Wright J, Potter P. Psyche and soma. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2003. p. 22.

Regier DA, Farmer ME, Rae DS, Locke BZ, Keith SJ, Judd LL, Goodwin FK. Comorbidity of mental disorders with alcohol and other drug abuse. Results from the Epidemiological Catchment Area (ECA) Study. JAMA 1990; 264:2511-2518.

Partonen T, Lonnqvist J. Seasonal affective disorder. The Lancet 1998; 352(9137):1369-1374.

Papavramidou N. The notions of “psychism” and “mental illness” in the Hippocratic, Aristotelian and Galenic texts. PhD thesis. Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; 2006. p. 188.

Morel P, Bourgeron J-P, Roudinesco E. Au delà du conscient. Histoire illustrée de la psychiatrie et de la psychanalyse. Athens: Exantas; 2004. p. 10-35 [In Greek].


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2013-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Advances in Bioscience and Clinical Medicine