HIST 3640 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Neurology, Hypnosis, Bed Rest
17 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Early 19th century families brought patients to the asylum not for madness but for nervous illnesses. Nerves and the study of nerves is central to the history of psychiatry. Nervous illness did not bring the stigma and ramifications into the patient"s life that madness did. Psychiatrists used this a mechanism to escape the asylum and enter into the private practice (their social stature and income exponentially raised) The thought that insanity could come from poisoned hereditary left a permanent dread in the public. Spilled over into going to watering holes for therapeutic health care (modern day spa) Flourished as the middle class became more wealthy. No longer were they a venue only for the rich. Spas began to lose its popularity by the turn of the century. Neurasthenia served as bridge between apparently organic causes and symptoms involving mood and cognition. Became the prototype of the functional nervous disease.
