PENN STATE UNIVERSITY

HISTORY 103

HISTORY OF MADNESS AND PSYCHIATRY IN THE WESTERN WORLD

FALL 2010
PROF. GREG EGHIGIAN

“Madness is deceptive” (1669). This is an illustration from Der Abentheuerliche Simplicissimus, Teutsch (The Adventurous
Simplicissimus) written by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1621-1676). The novel, based on Grimmelshausen’s own
life, chronicles the development of a child against the backdrop of the brutal Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

Course Description
More than perhaps any other set of human afflictions, the phenomena that have gone under the names of
“madness,” “insanity,” “lunacy,” and “mental illness” have historically provoked a wide
variety of often contradictory reactions. Those who have been in the throes of “madness”
have described experiences ranging from an ecstatic sense of holiness to being beset by
undeniable impulses to feelings of unending despair. Observers have sought explanations for
the behavior of “touched” and “crazy” individuals by invoking such things as sin, destiny,
heredity, moral degeneracy, upbringing, trauma, fatigue, and body chemistry. Those
afflicted have been admired, pitied, mocked, hidden from public view, canonized,
imprisoned, restrained, operated on, sterilized, hospitalized, killed, counseled, analyzed, and
medicated. Why?

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Course Information
Location and Time: M+W 11:15 pm-12:05 pm (112 Walker) + Friday discussion sections
Office Phone: 865-9951
Office: 212 Weaver
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:30-3 pm + by appointment
Email: gae2@psu.edu (I check my mail frequently during the day – the best way to reach
me)
Teaching Assistants: Bill Cossen (wsc5037@psu.edu) and Rebekah Harris
(reh5169@psu.edu)

Required Texts
Edward Shorter, History of Psychiatry from the Era of the Asylum to the Age of
Prozac (John Wiley and Sons, 1998)
Greg Eghigian, ed., From Madness to Mental Health: Psychiatric Disorder and
its Treatment in Western Civilization (Rutgers University Press, 2010)
The books are on sale at the University Bookstore.

Grading, Requirements, Policies

Your final grade will be determined on the basis of three open-book exams (3/4)
and participation in Friday discussion sections (1/4). No electronic devices are allowed
to be used during exams. YOU SHOULD BRING THE READER FROM MADNESS
TO MENTAL HEALTH (FMMH) TO ALL DISCUSSION SECTIONS. Make-up exams
will be granted only in exceptional circumstances, and they will be, as a general rule,
more difficult than the original exam itself. Failure to take any exam or to regularly
attend discussion sections will result in a final grade of “F.”
NOTE: The instructors reserve the right to add other assignments if student
performance warrants it.
Academic Integrity: Students are not permitted to copy other people's answers,
write papers or exams for others, have someone write their papers or exams for them, or
plagiarize the works of anyone else. Students who are found to be in violation of these
rules will receive academic sanctions and may be reported to the University's Judicial
Affairs office for possible further disciplinary action.
PLEASE NOTE: If you anticipate needing any kind of accommodation in this
course due to disability or have questions about physical access to the building, please
inform the instructor as soon as possible.

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 SCHEDULE

I. THE PNEUMATIC AGE

WEEK I. Madness in the Ancient World I: Religious Perspectives

Aug 23 Introduction
Aug 25 The Bible, 1 Samuel (ca. 960 B.C.E.) in From Madness to Mental Health
(hereafter, FMMH), 10-18
Aug 27 Euripides, The Bacchae (ca. 404 B.C.E.), FMMH, 18-30

WEEK II. Madness in the Ancient World II: Medical Perspectives

Aug 30 Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.E.), Writings on Hysteria (ca. 4th century
B.C.E.), FMMH, 30-36
Sep 1 The Bible, Mark 5 (ca. 65-75 C. E.), FMMH, 36-39
Sept 3 Soranus (ca. 2nd century C.E.), “Madness or Insanity (Greek Mania),”
FMMH, 39-46

WEEK III. Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Sep 6 LABOR DAY – NO CLASS
Sep 8 Sarabiyun Ibn Ibrahim, “Three Cases of Melancholia by Rufus of
Ephesus” (ca. 873), FMMH, 47-50
Ibn Sina [Avicenna] (ca. 980-1037), “Lovesickness” (1st Latin translation
12th century), FMMH, 50-53
Sep 10 John Brydall (ca. 1635–ca. after 1705), The Law Relating to Natural
Fools, Mad-Folks, and Lunatick Persons (1700), FMMH, 73-80

II. THE AGE OF OPTIMISM

WEEK IV. Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Reform

Sep 13 Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738), “Aphorisms” (1765), FMMH, 80-85
Sep 15 Philippe Pinel (1745-1826), A Treatise on Insanity (1801), FMMH, 94-
105
Sep 17 Johann Christian August Heinroth (1773-1843), Textbook on
Disturbances of Mental Life (1818), FMMH, 105-111

WEEK V.
Sep 20 Shorter, History of Psychiatry, 1-32
FILM: Madness of King George (UK, 1995)
Sep 22 Madness of King George continued
Sep 24 EXAM 1

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WEEK VI. The Asylum
Sep 27 Shorter, History, 33-68
Limerick District Lunatic Asylum, Report of the Limerick District
Lunatic Asylum for the Year Ending December 31st, 1866 (1867),
FMMH, 143-155
Sep 29 Great Britain, Office of Superintendent Government, Annual Report of
the Insane Asylums in Bengal for the Year 1867 (1868), FMMH,
155-162
Oct 1 The Opal: A Monthly Periodical of the State Lunatic Asylum, Devoted
to Usefulness, Edited by the Patients of the Utica State Lunatic
Asylum (1855-1860), FMMH, 134-143

WEEK VII. Brain Science, Neurology, and Clinical Psychiatry

Oct 4 Shorter, History, 69-112
Nelson Sizer, Forty Years in Phrenology; Embracing Recollections of
History, Anecdote, and Experience (1891), FMMH, 168-75
Oct 6 Shorter, History, 113-144
Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), “A Tuesday Lesson:
Hysteroepilepsy” (1888), FMMH, 193-200
Oct 8 Auguste Tamburini (1848-1919), “A Theory of Hallucinations” (1881),
FMMH, 179-184
Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926), “About the Surveillance Ward at the
Heidelberg Clinic for Lunatics” (1895), FMMH, 200-207

WEEK VIII. Nerves, Nervousness, and the “Nervous Breakdown”

Oct 11 George Miller Beard (1839-1883), “Cases of Hysteria, Neurasthenia,
Spinal Irritation, or Allied Affections” (1874), FMMH, 175-179
Oct 13 Vincent, “Confessions of an Agoraphobic Victim” (1919), FMMH, 223-
228
Oct 15 Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), Psychopathia Sexualis (1886),
FMMH, 184-193

WEEK IX. Psychoanalysis

Oct 18 EXAM 2
Oct 20 Starting read Freud assignment for Friday discussion
Oct 22 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), “The Origin and Development of
Psychoanalysis” (1910), FMMH, 207-223

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 III. THE MILITANT AGE

WEEK X. World War I, Shellshock, and Their Legacy

Oct 25 Fritz Kaufmann (1875-1941), “The Systematic Cure of Complicated
Psychogenic Motor Disorders Among Soldiers in One Session”
(1916), FMMH, 233-238
Oct 27 W. H. R. Rivers (1864-1922), War Neurosis and Military Training (1918),
FMMH, 238-244
Oct 29 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III, “Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorder” (1980), FMMH, 401-404

WEEK XI. Psychiatric Eugenics

Nov 1 Herman Lundborg (1868-1943), “The Danger of Degeneracy” (1922),
FHHM, 252-256
The Decision in Buck v. Bell (1927), FMMH, 256-260
Nov 3 Fritz Lenz (1887-1976), Human Selection and Race Hygiene (1921),
FMMH, 294-299
Germany, “The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Ill Offspring”
(14 July 1933), FMMH, 299-304
Nov 5 Documents on the “T-4” and “14f13” Programs (1939-1945), FMMH,
304-311.

WEEK XII. Somatic Treatments and Heroic Medicine

Nov 8 Shorter, History, 190-229
Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1940), “The Treatment of Dementia
Paralytica by Malaria Inoculation” (1927), FMMH, 260-270
Nov 10 Shorter, History, 239-272
Walter Freeman (1895-1972) and James W. Watts (1904-1994),
“Psychosurgery During 1936-1946” (1947), FMMH, 283-292
Nov 12 Anonymous, “Insulin and I” (1940), FMMH, 275-283

WEEK XIII. From Anti-Psychiatry…

Nov 15 Shorter, History, 229-238, 272-287
Nov 17 Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), “The North African Syndrome” (1952),
FMMH, 333-346
Nov 19 Thomas Szasz (b. 1920), “The Myth of Mental Illness” (1960), FMMH,
346-352

22-28 NOVEMBER NO CLASSES – THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

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WEEK XIV. …to Social Psychiatry
Nov 29 Records in the Case of Pyotr Grigorenko (1969-1970), FMMH, 317-329
World Psychiatric Association, “Declaration of Hawaii” (1977), FMMH,
329-332.
Dec 1 Franco Basaglia (1924-1980), “The Problem of the Incident” (1968),
FMMH, 352-357
Dec 3 Great Britain Department of Health and Social Security, “Better Services
for the Mentally Ill” (1975), FMMH, 357-368

IV. THE PSYCHOBOOM

WEEK XV. New Hopes, New Dilemmas

Dec 6 Shorter, History, 288-313
Alcoholics Anonymous (founded 1935), “The Twelve Steps” and “The
Twelve Traditions,” FMMH, 373-376
Carl Rogers (1902-1987), “The Attitude and Orientation of the Counselor
in Client-Centered Therapy” (1949), FMMH, 376-382
Dec 8 Aaron T. Beck (b. 1921), “Cognitive Therapy: Nature and Relation to
Behavior Therapy” (1970), FMMH, 382-392
Edna I. Rawlings and Dianne K. Carter, “The Intractable Female Patient”
(1977), FMMH, 392-401
Dec 10 Psychiatrists Debate Osheroff v. Chestnut Lodge (1990), FMMH, 405-420

13-17 DECEMBER – FINALS WEEK