DOCSLIB.ORG

Defining the Elephant: a History of Psychopathy, 1891-1959

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Defining the Elephant: a History of Psychopathy, 1891-1959 Defining the Elephant: a History of Psychopathy, 1891-1959 Susanna Elizabeth Evelyn Shapland Department of History, Classics and Archaeology Birkbeck, University of London Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, February 2019 1 DECLARATION I confirm that all material presented in this thesis is my own work, except where otherwise indicated. Signed .............................................. 2 ABSTRACT Although ‘psychopath’ is a term which is still in use by psychiatrists, it has come to be used as a way of dismissing individuals as irredeemably ‘bad’, untreatable or unpleasant, both by professionals and the public. This attitude is supported by existing histories of psychopathy that are in fact simply histories of the criminal personality, and rely upon retrofitting the diagnosis to historical examples of criminal or problematic behaviour to support their claims of psychopathy’s universal and timeless nature. This thesis disrupts that narrative. By examining the ways in which the terms psychopath, psychopathy and psychopathic are used in historical context, and how this changed over time, it challenges the idea of psychopathy as a fixed and value-free term, and reveals that there were multiple, competing versions of psychopathy in a history rich with contested meanings and overlapping usage. In analysing discussions of how psychopaths were diagnosed, managed and treated, it shows that the history of psychopathy is marked by a fundamental lack of agreement over the parameters of this ‘wastebasket’ diagnosis, which time and again proved too useful to discard. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks go first and foremost to my supremely patient supervisor, Joanna Bourke. Her inexhaustible enthusiasm and thought-provoking and perceptive feedback have been inspirational. Thank you to all the wonderful and friendly staff at the Wellcome Library for their help over the years, and also to those at the British Library, mainly for their dogged determination in tracking down John Gunn’s elusive but vital 1993 editorial. Thank you to everyone in the world of academia who has offered me support, encouragement, food for thought and copies of their work, most especially Simon Jarrett and Janet Weston, as well as Greg Eghigian, Thomas Dixon, Lyndsay Galpin, Hazel Morrison, Martyn Pickersgill, Stef Eastoe, Hazel Croft, Louise Hide, Sean Brady, Clare Makepeace and David Jones. My heartfelt thanks also go to Todd Whitelaw and Lesley Fitton. Thank you to everyone at Birkbeck who have given me support during this process, most particularly my mentor Tim Reynolds, but also to Tehyun Ma, Mark Pimm and Liz Hughes, not least for putting me in touch with Henrietta Mbeah-Bankas, to whom I am greatly indebted. I am also grateful for the help and support I have received from the NHS at various times during this period, most notably from Karen Sandhu and Marcus Kupczak. My unreserved gratitude also goes to Adam Knowles for his incredible and enduring support, and for challenging my thinking on issues such as irredeemability. Thank you to Wanda, who has provided sporadic support, frequent distraction and has constantly questioned my preconceived notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. And to Andrew: I wouldn’t have started this thesis if it hadn’t been for your encouragement, and I certainly wouldn’t have finished it without your relentless support. Thank you for always making time to engage with my arguments, read my work and solve my technology problems, and for always believing that I’d get here in the end. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations Used ............................................................................................................. 6 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter I: Semantics .................................................................................................................... 37 EVOLUTION Chapter II: Problematisation ........................................................................................................ 58 Chapter III: Criminalisation .......................................................................................................... 86 SITUATION Chapter IV: Identification ........................................................................................................... 111 Chapter V: Location .................................................................................................................... 134 SOLUTION Chapter VI: Eradication .............................................................................................................. 158 Chapter VII: Containment .......................................................................................................... 182 Chapter VIII: Cure ....................................................................................................................... 201 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 228 Appendix I .................................................................................................................................. 241 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 244 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED ACTO Advisory Council on the Treatment of Offenders APA American Psychiatric Association APD Antisocial Personality Disorder BJD British Journal of Delinquency BJP British Journal of Psychiatry BMA British Medical Association BMJ British Medical Journal DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual DSPD Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder EUPD Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder ICD International Classification of Diseases (also International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Injuries, and Causes of Death; International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) ISTD Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency JMS Journal of Mental Science (forerunner to the BJP) MHA Mental Health Act OEDO Oxford English Dictionary Online PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder RMPA Royal Medico-Psychological Association (forerunner to the Royal College of Psychiatrists) RSM Royal Society of Medicine UK United Kingdom US United States of America WHO World Health Organisation 6 INTRODUCTION ‘I can’t define an elephant; but I know one when I see one’.1 This near-nonsensical but oft- repeated observation introduced a 1944 paper analysing contemporary thinking on the subject of psychopathy.2 The authors, two British psychiatrists, used it to emphasise the perceived confusion and lack of consensus amongst the wise men of psychiatry as they attempted to define what was agreed to be an important subject: the psychiatric concept of psychopathy. Taking evidence from around the world, they established that there was disagreement on the definition, classification, aetiology and treatment of the disorder, despite the existence of a profusion of material on each of these aspects. Today, there are parallel voices of dissent questioning the concept of psychopathy, but they tend to be drowned out by a narrative of a universally-accepted diagnosis shored up by evidence of its apparent existence across continents and millennia. There is moreover a general lack of interest in questioning the diagnosis or rehabilitating its recipients, precisely because of its inherent stigma and connotations of ‘badness’. By looking at the history of psychopathy in Britain during a crucial period of its development, I hope to ask questions of the process of psychiatric diagnosis more broadly. I believe that this examination of psychopathy’s history will problematise the function of those diagnostic labels that possess such negative connotations that the very act of bestowing them can be tantamount to abuse, as they can result in the individuals labelled being at best dismissed, at worst being written off as untreatable or just straightforwardly wicked. Why Do We Need a History of Psychopathy? Psychopathy today is widely accepted as a valid psychiatric construct. In other words it is believed that the hypothesis ‘about the etiology, pathology, and development’ of psychopathic disorder can be reliably and consistently measured.3 In the case of psychopathy, the main means of measurement is Robert Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), first published 1 Desmond Curran and Paul Mallinson, ‘Psychopathic Personalities’, Journal of Mental Sciences, 90, (1944), p.266. 2 The elephant metaphor is cited approvingly by a number of other psychiatrists, suggesting it was considered a good analogy for the case of psychopathic personality. See for example W. Norwood East, ‘Psychopathic Personality and Crime’, Journal of Mental Science, 91:383, (1945), p.430; D. Stafford-Clark, Desmond Pond and J.W. Lovett-Doust, ‘The Psychopath in Prison: A Preliminary Report of a Co-operative Research’, British Journal of Delinquency 2:2, (1951), p.117. 3 Robert J. Campbell, Campbell’s Psychiatric Dictionary (OUP, Oxford, 2009), p.1020. 7 in 1980, and its derivatives.4 Together they are ‘the dominant instruments for the assessment of psychopathy’.5 Psychopathy as operationalised by the PCL-R is respected as a reliable predictor of violent recidivism in various countries around the world, and is considered to be more consistent in this than the diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), as set out in the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Solution for Elder Bullying
    WIEGAND.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 1/27/2020 11:06 AM “LIKE MEAN GIRLS, BUT EVERYONE IS EIGHTY”: A SOLUTION FOR ELDER BULLYING Brittany Wiegand* Bullying has long been an adolescent issue. With the elderly population ever-growing, however, so too does the incidence of elder bullying. Bullying behaviors often occur in small group settings with members who interact regularly, such as in schools. Senior living communities also fit this description. Bullies in senior communities may engage in verbal and even physical abuse; in the worst cases, bullying can be fatal. Instances of bullying among older adults are likely to increase in frequency as this population grows. This Note evaluates current federal and state laws that bullying victims might use to seek redress. It argues that current state laws should be amended to include seniors by aligning laws with research-based definitions of bullying. This Note also recommends providing a private right of action and implementing research-based programming in communal living centers. I. Introduction Flipped tables and false accusations: two unlikely scenes from a nursing home. Though one might expect something like this to occur at a middle school, each is only a minor component of one woman’s ex‐ perience in an elderly living community where she faced a torrent of physical and verbal abuse from other residents due to her sexual orien‐ tation.1 Brittany Wiegand is the Editor‐in‐Chief 2019–2020, Member 2018–2019, The Elder Law Journal; J.D. 2020, University of Illinois, Urbana‐Champaign; M.A. 2011, Curriculum & Instruction, Louisiana State University; B.A.
    [Show full text]
  • The Patients Psychiatrists Dislike
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/19932548 Personality disorder: The patients psychiatrists dislike ARTICLE in THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY · AUGUST 1988 Impact Factor: 7.99 · DOI: 10.1192/bjp.153.1.44 · Source: PubMed CITATIONS READS 183 83 2 AUTHORS, INCLUDING: Glyn Lewis University of London 515 PUBLICATIONS 19,434 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Available from: Glyn Lewis Retrieved on: 04 February 2016 Personality disorder: the patients psychiatrists dislike G Lewis and L Appleby The British Journal of Psychiatry 1988 153: 44-49 Access the most recent version at doi:10.1192/bjp.153.1.44 References Article cited in: http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/153/1/44#otherarticles Reprints/ To obtain reprints or permission to reproduce material from this paper, please write permissions to [email protected] You can respond http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/eletter-submit/153/1/44 to this article at Email alerting Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article - sign up in the box at the service top right corner of the article or click here Downloaded bjp.rcpsych.org on July 11, 2011 from Published by The Royal College of Psychiatrists To subscribe to The British Journal of Psychiatry go to: http://bjp.rcpsych.org/subscriptions/ British Journal of Psychiatry (1988), 153, 44—49 Personality Disorder: The Patients Psychiatrists Dislike GLYN LEWISand LOUISAPPLEBY A sample of psychiatrists was asked to read a case vignette and indicate likely management and attitudes to the patient on a number of semantic-differential scales.
    [Show full text]
  • The Biological Basis of Human Irrationality
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 119 041 CG 010 346 AUTHOR Ellis, Albert TITLE The Biological Basis of Human Irrationality. PUB DATE 31 Aug 75 NOTE 42p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association (83rd, Chicago, Illinois, August 30-September 2, 1975) Reproduced from best copy available EDRS PRICE MF-$0.83 HC-$2.06 Plus Postage DESCRIPTORS *Behavioral Science Research; *Behavior Patterns; *Biological Influences; Individual Psychology; *Psychological Patterns; *Psychological Studies; Psychotherapy; Speeches IDENTIFIERS *Irrationality ABSTRACT If we define irrationality as thought, emotidn, or behavior that leads to self-defeating consequences or that significantly interferes with the survival and happiness of the organism, we find that literally hundreds of major irrationalities exist in all societies and in virtually all humans in those societies. These irrationalities persist despite people's conscious determination to change; many of them oppose almost all the teachings of the individuals who follow them; they persist among highly intelligent, educated, and relatively undisturbed individuals; when people give them up, they usually replace them with other, sometimes just as extreme, irrationalities; people who strongly oppose them in principle nonetheless perpetuate them in practice; sharp insight into them or their origin hardly removes them; many of them appear to stem from autistic invention; they often seem to flow from deepseated and almost ineradicable tendencies toward human fallibility, overgeneralization, wishful thinking, gullibility, prejudice, and short-range hedonism; and they appear at least in part tied up with physiological, hereditary, and constitutional processes. Although we can as yet make no certain or unqualified claim for the biological basis of human irrationality, such a claim now has enough evidence behind it to merit serious consideration.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotional Deficiency and Psychopathy 569
    I I I Behavioral Sciences and the Law I Behav. Sci. Law 18: 567- 580 (2000) Emotional Deficiency and I Psychopathy Sabine C. Herpertz, M.D.* and Henning Sass, I M.D. Aside from an antisocial life-style, the concept of psychopathy is based on character features which can be I described in terms of specl.fi.c patterns of interpersonal, behavioral, and, in particular, affective characteristics. Concluding from studies which have dealt with the I affective domain in psychopaths, emotional deficiency may predispose to violence in several ways. (1) Poor conditioning implicates a failure to review the harmful consequences of one's actions leading to a deficit of I avoidance behavior. (2) Emotional detachment prevents experiencing feeUngs, which naturally inhibit the acting out of violent impulses. (3) Emotional deficiency is closely associated with a general underarousal, leading I to sensation seeking. Current data suggest that there may be a close association between difficulties in emotional processing and poor prefrontal functioning. From . a psychosocial perspective, psychopaths were I shown to have been exposed to severe familial and societal difficulties. Whether biological or environmental factors dominate in the etiology of this personality dis­ I order, psychopathy does not per se justify the assump­ tion of decreased legal responsibility. Copyright «;;> 2000 I John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF PSYCHOPATHY I The concept of psychopathy results from a confluence of views entertained in the French, German, and Anglo-American psychiatric traditions (see Table 1). Pinel's description of a "Mania sans delire", which was mainly characterized by emotional instability and social drift, can be looked upon as the beginning of I the scientific study of personality disorders (Sass & Herpertz, 1995).
    [Show full text]
  • The Mediating Role of Emotion Dysregulation in Psychopathy
    THE MEDIATING ROLE OF EMOTION DYSREGULATION IN PSYCHOPATHY AND BORDERLINE TRAITS A Thesis By BRITTANY NICOLE PENSON Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Chair of Committee, John F. Edens Committee Members, Steven Woltering Brandon J. Schmeichel Head of Department, Heather C. Lench May 2017 Major Subject: Psychology Copyright 2017 Brittany Nicole Penson ABSTRACT Research over the last several decades has more clearly specified the nature of the relationships between emotion regulation and various pathologies. For example, a growing body of literature suggests that psychopathic traits show divergent associations with emotion dysregulation. Among men, interpersonal-affective features of psychopathy (e.g., social dominance and fearlessness) demonstrate a negative relationship with emotion dysregulation; whereas impulsive-antisocial characteristics show a positive association. However, such findings have yet to be demonstrated with women, whose presentation of core psychopathic traits is thought to differ from men. In particular, research has pointed to borderline personality traits, to which emotion dysregulation is a core feature, to be closely linked to psychopathic traits in women. The current study sought to extend the literature concerning the relationship between emotion dysregulation and psychopathy by examining this association as a function of gender. Additionally, the current study examined the mediating role emotion dysregulation plays in the relationship between borderline personality traits and psychopathy as it relates to the phenotypic expression of psychopathy across men and women. The results of the present study reveal the same divergent pattern of emotion dysregulation and psychopathic traits in women as in men.
    [Show full text]
  • Polarization Or an Epidemic of Gullibility?
    This issue snapshot is excerpted from Unmasking the Future (2021), a scan of major current socio-economic trends and developments, at local, provincial, national and international scales, authored by James Stauch of the Institute for Community Prosperity, commissioned by the Calgary Foundation. NOT OK, BOOMER: Polarization or an Epidemic of Gullibility? “Americans need to call on Boomers, The admittedly ageist meme “OK, Boomer” rose to prominence in late 2019, first on TikTok, in their next act onstage, to behave then in the UK parliament to mock attitudes presumed to be associated with people born like grown-ups. And there is no in the two decades following World War II. The phrase knowingly exploits the irony of baby better way for them to do this than boomers critiquing younger generations for being idealist and utopian, but also expresses to guide young people to lives of an exhaustion with having to “inherit ever-amplifying problems in an ever-diminishing greater meaning, effectiveness, and window of time”, according to one British parliamentarian who used the term in the House purpose.” of Commons. Eric Liu It turns out that the baby boom generation is shaping up to be the most reactionary, conspiracy-loving, civically disruptive generation since the days when national socialism and Bolshevism were mainstream. And this is directly tied to uncritical dependence on “Falsehood flies, and truth comes social media. The internet-fueled “outrage-ification” of Americans and an increasing limping after it.” number of Canadians, skews disproportionately
    [Show full text]
  • Why Are Some People More Gullible Than Others? 31 March 2017, by Joseph Paul Forgas
    Why are some people more gullible than others? 31 March 2017, by Joseph Paul Forgas Credulity is closely related, a willingness to believe unlikely propositions with no evidence behind them. April Fool's tricks often work because they exploit our baseline inclination to accept direct communications from others as reliable and trustworthy. When a colleague tells you the boss wants to see you immediately, the first, automatic reaction is to believe them. Once we realise this is April 1, a more critical mindset will increase our threshold of acceptance Lies, pranks and April Fool’s Day jokes show how and triggers more thorough processing. Rejection is gullible we can sometimes be. Credit: then likely unless there is strong corroborating www.shutterstock.com evidence. Do we want to be gullible? Homo sapiens is probably an intrinsically gullible So, it seems that gullibility and credulity have to do species. We owe our evolutionary success to with how we think, and the level of proof we need culture, our unique ability to receive, trust and act before accepting information as valid. on stories we get from others, and so accumulate a shared view about the world. In a way, trusting In most face-to-face situations, the threshold of others is second nature. acceptance is fairly low, as humans operate with a "positivity bias" and assume most people act in an But not everything we hear from others is useful or honest and genuine way. even true. There are countless ways people have been misled, fooled and hoaxed, sometimes for Of course, this is not always so; others often want fun, but more often, for profit or for political gain.
    [Show full text]
  • First Rank Symptoms: Concepts and Diagnostic Utility
    REVIEW Afr J Psychiatry 2010;13:263-266 First rank symptoms: concepts and diagnostic utility S Saddichha 1, R Kumar 2, S Sur 3, BNP Sinha 4 1National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India 2Department of Psychiatry, Central Institute of Psychiatry, India 3Ranchi Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Allied Sciences, India 4University Hospital of North Tees, Cleveland, UK Abstract First Rank Symptoms (FRS) were first defined by Schneider as diagnostic of schizophrenia. Since then, there has been an immense debate on their diagnostic and prognostic utility. This review attempts to understand the concepts of FRS as depicted over the years and the diagnostic and prognostic implications of FRS in mental illnesses including schizophrenia. Review of relevant material showed that there are wide variations in the concepts of FRS which may be classified according to broad and narrow definitions. These variations have also led to the differences in the diagnostic systems currently being used. Although the diagnostic utility of FRS in schizophrenia remains, it is not clearly so with other mental illnesses in which these symptoms may also be observed. In addition there is controversy over the prognostic implications with evidence divided between poor and no influence on outcome. Key words: First rank symptoms; Schizophrenia; Diagnosis; Prognosis Received: 01-07-2009 Accepted: 30-07-2009 Introduction as well as the diagnostic and prognostic implications of FRS in Eliciting first rank symptoms (FRS), giving rise to the mental illnesses including schizophrenia. diagnoses of schizophrenia and related illnesses, forms part of the clinical assessment process. Although the concept of Concept of FRS FRS is evolving these symptoms are widely used in several It has been suggested that instead of being clear cut diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, having initially been symptoms, FRS lie along a continuum which can be arranged proposed by Schneider (1959).
    [Show full text]
  • Interpersonal Dynamics in Personality and Personality Disorders
    European Journal of Personality, Eur. J. Pers. 32: 499–524 (2018) Published online 27 June 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/per.2155 Interpersonal Dynamics in Personality and Personality Disorders CHRISTOPHER J. HOPWOOD* University of California, Davis, CA USA Abstract: Clinical and basic personality psychologists interact less than they should, given their similar interests. In clinical personality psychology, available evidence supports a transition from the current categorical system to a hierarchical trait scheme for diagnosing the stable features of personality disorder. However, trait models do not capture the dynamic aspects of personality disorders as they have been described in the clinical literature, and thus miss a clinically critical feature of personality pathology. In contrast, basic personality psychologists have coalesced around a consensual structure of individual differences and become increasingly interested in the dynamic processes that underlie and contextualize traits. But trait psychology models are not sufficiently specific to characterize dynamic personality processes. In this paper, I filter clinical descriptions of personality disorders through the lens of interpersonal theory to specify a recursive within-situation interpersonal pattern of motives, affects, behaviours, and perceptions that could contribute to the stable between-situation patterns of maladaptive behaviour of historical interest to both basic and clinical personality psychologists. I suggest that this interpersonal
    [Show full text]
  • Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation
    English Appendix 2: Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation Year 1 The following should be taught at year 1: Punctuation Separation of words with finger spaces. The use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks in sentences. Capital letter for proper nouns (names of people, places, days of the week). Capital letter for the personal pronoun I Grammar and Vocabulary The use of regular plural noun suffixes. e.g. adding s or es. (dog–dogs and wish– wishes ) Adding suffixes to words where there is no change to the spelling of the root word:e.g. root word–help becomes helping, helper, helped. Using and understanding how the prefix un changes the meaning of verbs and adjectives. e.g. kind– unkind, tie–untie. How words can make simple sentences. Join words and clauses with and. Grammatical terms that Letter children should know Capital letter Full stop word Singular and plural Sentence Punctuation Question mark Exclamation mark Link to SPaG progression Y1 Sentence structures Examples document Join words and clauses with Write 2 simple sentences joined with I can see the dog and the cat. and and because and and because. 1A sentences I can see the scruffy dog. One adjective before the noun Year 2 The following should be taught at year 2, ensuring that year 1 content is secure. Punctuation The use of capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks in sentences. The use of commas to separate items in a list The use of apostrophes for omission. e.g. did not – didn’t The use of apostrophe to show singular possession in nouns e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Psychopathy: Its Relevance, Nature, Assessment, and Treatment
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308699806 Psychopathy: Its Relevance, Nature, Assessment, and Treatment Article · June 2016 CITATIONS READS 6 995 3 authors, including: Bradley A White University of Alabama 29 PUBLICATIONS 534 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: View full-text article at: https://rdcu.be/b44iB View project All content following this page was uploaded by Bradley A White on 28 September 2016. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Psychopathy: Its Relevance, Nature, Assessment, psychopathy” (Gao & Raine, 2010). In addition, it is unclear whether successful and Treatment psychopathy reflects a more mild version of unsuccessful psychopathy, a distinct configuration of psychopathic traits, or an Bradley A. White, Virginia Tech attenuated expression of core psychopathic traits tempered by protective factors Mark E. Olver, University of Saskatchewan (Ishikawa, Raine, Lencz, Bihrle, & Lacasse; 2001; Lilienfeld et al., 2015). Scott O. Lilienfeld, Emory University What Psychopathy Is Not Why Care About Psychopathy? vary dimensionally in youth and adults in Beyond the obvious confusion stem- the general population (e.g., Guay, Ruscio, ming from the unfortunate prefix “psycho” Fascination with individuals who Knight, & Hare, 2007; Murrie et al., 2007). (psychopathy is just one form of personal- chronically violate the rules and demon- Some authors have argued that psycho- ity psychopath ology , and most psychopaths strate reckless disregard for others dates pathic traits are one of the strongest dispo- are not psychotic or otherwise irrational or back to antiquity. In the Book of Deuteron- sitional risk factors for antisocial behavior, disoriented), many erroneous beliefs exist omy, Moses (c.
    [Show full text]
  • History of the Opposition Between Psychogenesis and Organogenesis in Classic Psychiatry: Part 2 Yorgos Dimitriadis
    History of the opposition between psychogenesis and organogenesis in classic psychiatry: Part 2 Yorgos Dimitriadis To cite this version: Yorgos Dimitriadis. History of the opposition between psychogenesis and organogenesis in clas- sic psychiatry: Part 2. History of Psychiatry, SAGE Publications, 2020, 31 (3), pp.274-293. 10.1177/0957154X20922131. hal-02911528 HAL Id: hal-02911528 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02911528 Submitted on 3 Aug 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 1 [HPY31(3)] Article History of the opposition between psychogenesis and organogenesis in classic psychiatry: Part 2 Yorgos Dimitriadis Université de Paris, France Edited by Professor Tom Dening Corresponding author: Yorgos Dimitriadis, CRPMS, Université de Paris, 5 Rue Thomas Mann, 75013 Paris, France. Email: [email protected] 2 Abstract This paper is the second of two to explore historical concepts of causation in psychiatry. Psychogenesis (as opposed to organogenesis) is superficially attractive but ambiguous, as it can apply either to something that is produced by the psyche or alternatively the effect upon the psyche from external factors. The term endogenous may be contrasted to exogenous or reactive, but the meanings of each have become blurred and ambiguous.
    [Show full text]