In a recent issue of History of Psychiatry, 19(3), Louis C. Charland (pictured right) presented the first systematic exegesis of Alexander Crichton‘s (1763-1856) contributions to the medical theory of the passions.

The present article explores four themes in Crichton’s work on the passions: (1) the role of irritability in the physiology of the passions; (2) the manner in which irritability and sensibility contribute to the valence, or polarity, of the passions; (3) the elaboration of a psychopathology of the passions that emphasizes their physiological form rather than meaningful content or connections; and (4) the insistence that medical science ought to ignore ethical and other ‘moral’ psychological and social aspects of the passions. [here]

A classic text by Crichton, “Mind in General” (1798), was also recently reprinted in the same journal.