Most of the prefatory issues are extensively elaborated upon in the Prolegomenon, which also contains the complete references to the texts and authors discussed below. Nevertheless, the “Preface” would be grossly incomplete without touching on some of these issues, books, and scholars. Too, many of this book’s chapters (e. g. , Mora’s, Marx’s, D. B. Weiner’s) examine and “reference” important earlier, as well as contemporary, general histories of psychiatry and specialized monographs; in German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Also, in his 1968 Short History of Psychiatry, d- cussed below, Ackerknecht (pp. xi–xii) references important nineteenth and earlier-twentieth century psychiatric histories in English, French, and German. Such citations will of course not be repeated here. Finally, thanks to several publishers’re-editions of dozens of classical psychiatric texts; one can consult their bibliographies as well. See “Prolegomenon” for references to these splendid series. In a rough-and-ready sense, medical history began in classical Greece—for example, On Ancient Medicine. While traditionally included in the Hippocratic corpus, this text seems more likely to have been written by a non- or even anti-Hippocratic doctor. Moreover, the Hippocratic and other schools were hardly as secular as we now suppose. On Epilepsy, for example, does not so much declare the prevalent denotation of it as the “sacred disease” erroneous as it does that it is no more nor less sacred than any other disease.
From the reviews:
"The main audience for this new book is educators who want to be good scholars of intellectual history; the remaining readers are those who just want to deeply understand how present concepts of the mind were invented. This book, written ill a language of a high but approachable erudition, could serve as a knowledgeable guide to all of them in their journeys to a different level of understanding about how psychiatry actually works and thinks as a discipline. ... I enthusiastically recommend History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology-it is refreshingly self-aware, an enjoyable read, and could provide hours of material for seminars with students to remind them of Santayana's mordant warning that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (Antolin C. Trinidad, MD, George Washington University, Washington, DC, JAMA, February 18, 2009-Vo1. 301, No. 7)
"History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology is one of the largest edited volumes on the history of psychiatry ... . The chapters cover the history of psychiatry in the United States, France, Germany, and ... the United Kingdom. ... a contribution that can help students and physicians to become acquainted with that history. ... For a reader who seeks a convenient overview of research in the history of psychiatry conducted during the last two decades, this volume could be handy." (Hans Pols, ISIS, Vol. 100 (2), 2009)
"It devotes a substantial amount of space to a prolegomenon; an introductory chapter to the historical and methodological concerns, and adds an extremely useful and comprehensive annotated bibliography. ... would be worthy of publication in its own right, and its value is all the greater for the way in way in which it contextualizes the rest of the book. ... It places the philosophy of psychiatry centrally in both the practice and academic worlds ... . It is a very fine book." (Mark Welch, Metapsychology Online Reviews, September,2009)
"The main audience for this new book is educators who want to be good scholars of intellectual history; the remaining readers are those who just want to deeply understand how present concepts of the mind were invented. This book, written ill a language of a high but approachable erudition, could serve as a knowledgeable guide to all of them in their journeys to a different level of understanding about how psychiatry actually works and thinks as a discipline. ... I enthusiastically recommend History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology-it is refreshingly self-aware, an enjoyable read, and could provide hours of material for seminars with students to remind them of Santayana's mordant warning that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (Antolin C. Trinidad, MD, George Washington University, Washington, DC, JAMA, February 18, 2009-Vo1. 301, No. 7)
"History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology is one of the largest edited volumes on the history of psychiatry ... . The chapters cover the history of psychiatry in the United States, France, Germany, and ... the United Kingdom. ... a contribution that can help students and physicians to become acquainted with that history. ... For a reader who seeks a convenient overview of research in the history of psychiatry conducted during the last two decades, this volume could be handy." (Hans Pols, ISIS, Vol. 100 (2), 2009)
"It devotes a substantial amount of space to a prolegomenon; an introductory chapter to the historical and methodological concerns, and adds an extremely useful and comprehensive annotated bibliography. ... would be worthy of publication in its own right, and its value is all the greater for the way in way in which it contextualizes the rest of the book. ... It places the philosophy of psychiatry centrally in both the practice and academic worlds ... . It is a very fine book." (Mark Welch, Metapsychology Online Reviews, September,2009)