Psychiatry 100 Years Ago

BJPThe excellent blog Mind Hacks recently noted that the British Journal of Psychiatry runs a regular column about the nature of the discipline 100 years earlier. The column, researched and written by Henry Rollin, provides a fascinating, and occasionally gruesome glimpse into the past. For instance, there are items on the unconscious mind, hypnosis, hysteria, mental “dissociation,” masturbation, “auto-accusation” (falsely confessing to a crime), “pyromania in puberty”, and a number of “idiots”, “imbeciles,” and the “feeble-minded”.

Best of all, BJP has made the columns freely available on their website.

About Christopher Green

Professor of Psychology at York University (Toronto). Former editor of the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. Creator of the "Classics in the History of Psychology" website and of the "This Week in the History of Psychology" podcast series.