The reception of Dr Ludwik Jekels' "apostolic activity" to promote psychoanalysis in Poland before the outbreak of World War I. Part 1. / Reakcje na "apostolska dzialalnosc" dr. Ludwika Jekelsana rzecz psychoanalizy w Polsce do wybuchu I wojny swiatowej. Czesc 1.

The paper sets out to present Dr Ludwk Jekels' activity for the development of psychoanalysis in Poland between 1909 and 1914. Ludwik Jekels was the first Polish psychoanalyst and the first translator of Sigmund Freud's works into Polish. Throughout numerous years he gained his psychoanalytic skills in the classical Viennese school of psychoanalysis while attending lectures conducted by Freud himself. The article analyses a number of previously unknown and unpublished historical sources (e.g., Ludwik Jekels' memories and correspondence as well as daily newspapers and scientific journals). The research allowed the current knowledge of Dr Jekels' activity and achievements in his early career as a psychoanalyst to be significantly complemented. The first part of the paper presents briefly Dr Jekels' professional development and the causes why he gained interest in psychoanalysis. A little-known period of psychoanalytic activity prior to his first public presentations in Krakow and Warsaw in 1909 was reconstructed. The article includes a detailed review of Jekels' first lectures on psychoanalysis, including one which has been completely unknown to the historians of medicine. The varied reactions of the Polish neurologists and psychiatrists' to Jekels' promoting activity and psychoanalysis itself were critically assessed.

The uses of trauma in experiment: Traumatic stress and the history of experimental neurosis, c. 1925-1975.

The article retraces the shifting conceptualizations of psychological trauma in experimental psychopathological research in the middle decades of the twentieth century in the United States. Among researchers studying so-called experimental neuroses in animal laboratories, trauma was an often-invoked category used to denote the clash of conflicting forces believed to lead to neurotic suffering. Experimental psychologists, however, soon grew skeptical of the traumatogenic model and ultimately came to reject neurosis as a disease entity. Both theoretical differences and practical circumstances, such as the technical challenge of stabilizing neurotic symptoms in rats, led to this demise. Yet, despite their reservations, experimental psychologists continued to employ traumatic stimuli to produce psychopathological syndromes. In the 1960s, a new understanding of trauma evolved, which emphasized the loss of control experienced by traumatized animal subjects. These shifting ideas about trauma, I argue, reflect both varying experimental cultures, epistemic norms as well as changing societal concerns.

[The energy metaphor for the human body and its effect on the rise of neurasthenia, neurosis and depression]. / La metáfora energética del ser humano y su incidencia en el auge de la neurastenia, la neurosis y la depresión.

This article aims to provide a historical critique of the rise of three diagnostic categories: neurasthenia (late nineteenth century), neurosis (first half of the twentieth century) and depression (mid-twentieth century to the present). The hypothesis is that their broad dissemination can be explained through their link to the energy metaphor for the human body. From the mid-nineteenth century on, the concept of energy spread through western culture, encouraging certain fictions about what we are - the ontological dimension - and what we could be - the ethical dimension. The article shows that these pathologies have codified and made intelligible a set of life trajectories that did not obey the imperatives of those onto-ethical fictions.

El artículo tiene por objetivo realizar una historia crítica del auge de tres categorías diagnósticas: la neurastenia (fin del siglo XIX), la neurosis (primera mitad del siglo XX) y la depresión (segunda mitad del siglo XX hasta nuestros días). La hipótesis es que su amplia difusión se explicaría debido al vínculo que ellas han tenido con la metáfora energética del ser humano. Desde mediados del siglo XIX, la concepción energética se difundió por la cultura occidental, habilitando ciertas ficciones acerca de lo que somos ­ dimensión ontológica ­ y lo que podríamos llegar a ser ­ dimensión ética. El artículo muestra que estas patologías han codificado y tornado inteligible determinadas trayectorias vitales que no cumplían con los imperativos de tales ficciones onto-éticas.

La metáfora energética del ser humano y su incidencia en el auge de la neurastenia, la neurosis y la depresión / The energy metaphor for the human body and its effect on the rise of neurasthenia, neurosis and depression

Resumen El artículo tiene por objetivo realizar una historia crítica del auge de tres categorías diagnósticas: la neurastenia (fin del siglo XIX), la neurosis (primera mitad del siglo XX) y la depresión (segunda mitad del siglo XX hasta nuestros días). La hipótesis es que su amplia difusión se explicaría debido al vínculo que ellas han tenido con la metáfora energética del ser humano. Desde mediados del siglo XIX, la concepción energética se difundió por la cultura occidental, habilitando ciertas ficciones acerca de lo que somos - dimensión ontológica - y lo que podríamos llegar a ser - dimensión ética. El artículo muestra que estas patologías han codificado y tornado inteligible determinadas trayectorias vitales que no cumplían con los imperativos de tales ficciones onto-éticas.

Abstract This article aims to provide a historical critique of the rise of three diagnostic categories: neurasthenia (late nineteenth century), neurosis (first half of the twentieth century) and depression (mid-twentieth century to the present). The hypothesis is that their broad dissemination can be explained through their link to the energy metaphor for the human body. From the mid-nineteenth century on, the concept of energy spread through western culture, encouraging certain fictions about what we are - the ontological dimension - and what we could be - the ethical dimension. The article shows that these pathologies have codified and made intelligible a set of life trajectories that did not obey the imperatives of those onto-ethical fictions.

Dr. Karol de Beaurain - a psychiatrist's profile. Part 1. / Dr Karol de Beaurain ­ sylwetka psychiatry. Czesc 1.

The paper sets out to recall the profile of Karol de Beaurain, a psychiatrist who belonged to the circle of first Poles who used psychoanalysis in treatment. So far, dr Beaurain has been known from brief references in publications relating to the life and works of Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) whose psychoanalytic sessions he conducted between 1912 and 1913. De Beaurain was born in 1867 and studied medicine at Swiss universities (Zurich, Berne, Geneva) where he defended his doctoral thesis as well. He was prepared for the career of a health resort physician and when he returned to Poland, he settled down in Poronin where except for working as a district physician, he also engaged in social and cultural activities. Around 1910 his professional interest shifted towards psychiatry and psychotherapy. In the final months of 1911 he relocated to Zakopane where he opened a private practice for "neu-rotic diseases". At the same time he started treating patients with the use of psychoanalytic methods. The first part of the paper concerns the life of doctor de Beaurain from birth and the period of studies and preparation for his professional career until the time when he started his psychoanalytic work.

Dr. Karol de Beaurain - a psychiatrist's profile. Part 2. / Dr Karol de Beaurain ­ sylwetka psychiatry. Czesc 2.

The paper sets out to recall the profile of Karol de Beaurain, a psychiatrist, who was one of first Poles to use the psychoanalytic method in treatment. So far, he has been mostly known as the one who was Witkacy's psychoanalyst. Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz and Eugenia Dunin-Borkowska are the first patients who are known by their names and who received psychoanalytic treatment in the history of the Polish medicine. Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz's letters and drawings originating from the psychoanalysis period served as a source of information about Witkacy's psychoanalysis. The paper illustrates dr Beaurain's fate during World War I when he was first a military doctor in Skoczów and then an assistant in prof. Piltz's Neurological-Psychiatric Clinic in Kraków where he actively participated in the creation of a multidimensional programme of war neurosis treatment. After the war finished, initially Beaurain stayed at his assistant post at the Psychiatric Clinic in Kraków but then in 1921 he relocated to the National Psychiatric Hospital in Dziekanka near Poznan. With his professional expertise he contributed to the strengthening of the Great Poland region psychiatry that had experienced qualified personnel shortages after the German qualified staff left. The growing numbers of patients and the overload of professional duties were probably the factors that led to dr. Beaurain's premature death while he was holding the position of the head physician at the National Psychiatric Hospital in Owinska in February 1927.

Psychoneurocutaneous medicine: past, present and future.

Psychoneurocutaneous medicine is an important and rapidly growing field. It is an integrative science created to address the interaction between the mind, nervous system and skin. Four major fields are involved: psychiatry, psychology, neurology and dermatology. The history of psychoneurocutaneous medicine is old and fascinating. Even though it is a young science only established in the last century, allusions to the nervous system and diseases of the skin can be traced back thousands of years in the literature. Characteristically, the last two centuries were of special importance for the development of this field in Europe, lately in America, with great effort placed on research and publications. More recently, the creation of associations, work groups and the merging of subspecialties dedicated exclusively to study the psychological impact of skin disorders in subpopulations of patients have helped to give momentum to psychoneurocutaneous medicine. Further development of this field will shed light on the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of psychodermatologic disorders, enhancing the functionality and quality of life of patients. This paper presents a summary of the most influential facts in the history of psychoneurocutaneous medicine, its present and future perspectives.

History of Morgellons disease: the same name for different psychodermatologic diseases?

"Morgellons disease" has been a controversial topic in the history of psychodermatology. The most consensual scientific opinion is that it is a primary psychiatric disorder, particularly, a delusional disorder, although others were also pointed out. Some authors have suggested that it may correspond to a common dermatosis with secondary psychopathology. The Morgellons Research Foundation has advocated that it is "an emerging infectious" entity. This paper intends to critically review the main ideas and controversies, since its first description.

Ludwika Karpinska, "Polish Lady Philosopher" - a forgotten forerunner of Polish psychoanalysis. / Ludwika Karpinska: "polska pani filozof" ­ zapomniana prekursorka polskiej psychoanalizy.

The paper presents the profile of the psychologist, Ludwika Karpinska-Woyczynska, the first Polish woman who acted for the popularisation of psychoanalysis and experimental psychology. Karpinska belonged to the first generation of the "Polish Freudians", a group which also involved Ludwik Jekels, Stefan Borowiecki, Herman Nunberg, Jan Nelken and Karol de Beaurain. Karpinska's difficult path to gain higher education will be presented. Thepaper lays an emphasis on Karpinska's contribution to the development of the international psychoanalysis and offers an overview of her most significant psychoanalytic publications (Polish and foreign ones) up to the outbreak of World War I. It demonstrates her participation in scientific conferences and collaboration with the most important psychoanalytical centres in Zurich and Vienna together with their representatives (Jung, Freud, Jekels) drawing simultaneous attention to the broader historical background of the presented events. Karpinska's post-war work was inextricably linked to the research on intelligence quotient of children and youth and psychotechnical studies. Furthermore, the paper illustrates the activities of the Municipal Psychological Lab in Lodz, where Karpinska was a Head between 1920 and 1930, as well as her scientific achievements in intelligence quotient research, most significant publications of 1921-1930, her collaboration with foreign centres of a similar profile and the efforts she made to establish the Vocational Guidance Service.

Development of psychotherapy as a method of mental disorders treatment at the Jagiellonian University and in Kraków before World War I.

This article presents the origins of Polish psychotherapy with a special focus on psychotherapy development in Krakow and at the Jagiellonian University. The history of Krakow psychotherapy starts with the foundation of the Psychiatry and Neuropathology Clinic of the Jagiellonian University in 1905. Doctors working in the Department of psychotherapy developed their skills through contacts with the Zurich University Psychiatric Clinic Burgholzli. At the same time psychotherapy, and psychoanalysis in particular, were raising more and more interest in Poland. The most dynamic development of psychoanalysis reflected in the number of scientific publications, occurs in the years leading to the outbreak of War World I. This article presents brief portraits of the first Polish psychoanalysts ( Ludwik Jekels, Herman Nunberg, Ludwika Karpinska, Stefan Borowiecki, Jan Nelken, Kraol de Beaurain). Many of them worked in Psychiatry and Neuropathology Clinic of the Jagiellonian University. Their scientific achievements and contribution to the development of the international psychoanalytic movement are described, as well as relationships with leading psychoanalysts of this period (Freud, Jung). With the outbreak of World War I the research on and treatment of war neurosis was initiated in the Psychiatry and Neuropathology Clinic. Professor Piltz, the director of the clinic, together with his assistants (Borowiecki, de Beuarain, Artwinski) devised a unique in European psychiatry and highly efficient method of post-traumatic disorders treatment, in which psychotherapy was of key importance.

Cats on the Couch: The Experimental Production of Animal Neurosis.

Argument In the 1940s-50s, one of the most central questions in psychological research related to the nature of neurosis. In the final years of the Second World War and the following decade, neurosis became one of the most prominent psychiatric disorders, afflicting a high proportion of military casualties and veterans. The condition became central to the concerns of several psychological fields, from psychoanalysis to Pavlovian psychology. This paper reconstructs the efforts of Chicago psychiatrist Jules Masserman to study neurosis in the laboratory during the 1940s and 1950s. Masserman used Pavlovian techniques in a bid to subject this central psychoanalytic subject to disciplined scientific experimentation. More generally, his project was an effort to bolster the legitimacy of psychoanalysis as a human science by articulating a convergence of psychoanalytic categories across multiple species. Masserman sought to orchestrate a convergence of psychological knowledge between fields that were often taken to be irreconcilable. A central focus of this paper is the role of moving images in this project, not only as a means of recording experimental data but also as a rhetorical device. The paper argues that for Masserman film played an important role in enabling scientific observers (and then subsequent viewers) to see agency and emotion in the animals they observed.

Cullen, a cautionary tale.

Some ideas return after the briefest of exiles: reductionism is back in vogue. Existential questions - about who we are, about our origins and future, about what is valuable - no longer require difficult soul searching, especially when straightforward answers are expected from the neurosciences. History is being rewritten with the brain as its centrepiece; the search for great men and big ideas of the past begins again. William Cullen (1710-90), whose work on neurosis was once part of the history of psychoanalysis, is now well placed to become part of such a neuro-history. This article attempts to subvert this process, by rebuilding the original meaning of neurosis through Cullen's physiological and medical works, in comparison with his predecessor, Robert Whytt (1714-66), and illustrating this meaning using one particular neurosis: hypochondriasis. The result is a more complicated version of neurosis which, importantly, carries significant insights into the nature and practice of medicine. Moreover, this article examines how Cullen's standing fell in the 1820s as British physicians and surgeons turned to an idea which promised to reform medicine: pathological anatomy. When these hopes faded, Cullen became a figure obsessed with the nerves. This image has survived to the present, a blank canvas onto which any theory can be projected. It also values precisely what Cullen warned against: simplistic explanations of the body and disease, and unthinking confidence in the next big idea or silver bullet. Neurosis was not simply a nervous ailment, but it is a warning against reductionism in history making.

[Research and treatment of war neuroses at the Clinic for Nervous and Mental Diseases at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow before World War II in the context of psychiatry in Europe]. / Badania i leczenie nerwic wojennych w Klinice Neurologiczno-Psychiatrycznej Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego w Krakowie przed II wojna swiatowa na tle psychiatrii europejskiej.

The aim of this article is to offer an overview of the research into diagnosis and treatment of war neuroses at the Clinic for Nervous and Mental Diseases at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow before the outbreak of World War II. It also includes a profile of the work of Prof. Jan Piltz, the then director of the Clinic, and his major scientific achievements. The publications cited in the article date in the main from the period of World War I, and comprise clinical analyses of the consequences of stress suffered at the front as well as a description of the ways in which they were treated. These are presented alongside other major findings related to war neuroses being made in Europe at the time. The article draws attention to the very modern thinking on treatment of war neuroses, far ahead of the average standards of the day, evinced by Prof. Piltz and his team. The most important innovative elements of their treatment of these conditions were the fact that they perceived the cause of the neurosis to lie in previous personality disorders in the patients, their recommendation of psychotherapy as the main method of treatment, and their emphasis on the need for further rehabilitation following the completion of the course of hospital treatment. They also paid significant attention to the importance of drawing up individual therapy plans for each patient.

Joseph Hersey Pratt (1872-1956): An early proponent of cognitive-behavioural therapy in America.

The treatment of mild psychoneuroses in America began shifting in the 1950s from Freudian psychoanalysis to various forms of psychotherapy that do not delve into patient's subconscious. Some of the new approaches were termed cognitive, behavioural or cognitive behavioural therapy and in America were practised notably by Joseph Wolpe, Albert Ellis and Aaron T Beck. Modern psychiatric literature makes little mention of two prior innovators in this area - the French neurologist Jules Dejerine and his Boston disciple Joseph H Pratt. In the early 1900s, Dejerine treated patients at La Salpêtrière in Paris using techniques adopted subsequently by Pratt during the 1930s and employed by the trio some decades later. This paper revisits the early history of psychotherapy in America and includes a brief summary of Pratt's medical career.

Dilemas contempor neos de la nosología psiquiátrica: El caso de las neurosis / Contemporary dilemmas in psychiatric nosology: The case of neurosis

Se plantean diversas reflexiones en torno a la presencia y significado actual del término y concepto de neurosis en la medicina y psiquiatría contemporáneas, tomando como punto de partida su “desaparición” de los sistemas nosológicos y diagnósticos actuales. La historia del concepto se esboza a partir de la contribución seminal de William Cullen en el Siglo XVIII y se ilustra desde diferentes perspectivas por Charcot, Freud y, en España, por Mira y López, Llopis, López Ibor y Castilla del Pino. Concluye esta sección con la descripción de las radicales modificaciones y la total eliminación del término “neurosis” en las diversas ediciones del Manual Diagnóstico y Estadístico de la Asociación Psiquiátrica Americana (DSM) a partir de 1980, así como las objeciones de Tyrer. La neurosis en la actualidad puede ser reconsiderada a partir de dos tesis contrapuestas: 1) la identificación de un conjunto de síntomas diferenciales e identificables a partir de pruebas de investigación, predominantemente neurobiológica, y 2) su consideración como expresión inmanente del sufrimiento humano (profundamente subjetivo y biográfico) que lleva a la búsqueda de ayuda profesional.

A series of reflections are presented about the presence and meaning of the concept of neurosis in contemporary medicine and psychiatry, taking as a point of departure its “disappearance” from current nosological and diagnostic systems. The concept’s history is traced back beginning with the seminal contribution by William Cullen in the 18th Century and continued from different perspectives by Charcot, Freud and, in Spain, by Mira y L¢pez, Llopis, L¢pez Ibor and Castilla del Pino. This section ends with the description of the elimination of the term “neurosis” from the several editions of APA’s DSM since 1980, and the objections by Tyrer. Neurosis as a current disorder deserves more studies on the basis of two opposite theses: 1) as a set of analyzable and interpretable symptoms to be studied by evidence-oriented research, particularly of neurobiological nature, and 2) as an immanent expression of profoundly subjective (personal and biographic) human suffering that leads to searching of professional help.

French neuropsychiatry in the Great War: between moral support and electricity.

In World War I, an unprecedented number of soldiers were suffering from nervous disturbances, known as war psychoneuroses. Mechanisms of commotion, emotion, and suggestion were defined in order to explain these disturbances. In France, emphasis was placed on the mechanism of suggestion, based on pithiatism, introduced by Joseph Babinski (1857-1932) before the war to highlight the concept of suggestion and its hazy border with simulation. As a result, many soldiers suffering from war neuroses became considered as simulators or malingerers who were merely attempting to escape the front. A medical-military collusion ensued with the aim of sending as many of these nervous cases back to the front as possible through the use of painful or experimental therapies. Aggressive therapies flourished including torpillage, a particularly painful form of electrotherapy developed by Clovis Vincent (1879-1947) and subsequently by Gustave Roussy (1874-1948). At the end of the war, some psychiatrists, such as Paul Sollier (1861-1933), Georges Dumas (1866-1946), and Paul Voivenel (1880-1975), developed a more psychological approach. In Great Britain, where Charles Myers (1873-1946) coined the term shell shock in 1915 to describe these cases, psychological theories were more successful. In Germany, aggressive therapies developed by Fritz Kaufmann (1875-1941) emerged in the second part of the war. In Austria, the future Nobel Prize winner Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1940) was accused of performing violent therapies on patients with war neuroses. These methods, which now seem barbarian or inhuman, were largely accepted at the time in the medical community and today should be judged with caution given the cultural, patriotic, and medical background of the Great War.

The great neurosis of Dr. Joseph Gerard.

The Great Neurosis, of Dr. Joseph Gerard, was published in 1889 in Paris. The book, intended for the general public, shows the different varieties of neuroses through picturesque and instructive examples. Its scientific and medical value is poor, but provides us with the various meanings of the word 'neurosis' in the late nineteenth century.

Gustav Mahler as Freud's patient: a note on possible obstacles to communication and understanding.

OBJECTIVE: This article examines the meeting between Gustav Mahler and Sigmund Freud from a perspective that takes into account possible obstacles to their interaction. CONCLUSIONS: Mahler consulted Freud in the context of a marital crisis in 1910. While it appears that a meeting between the two men had some positive effects on Mahler, its long-term impact will never be known because Mahler died only eight months later. This consultation is first examined in the light of a number of its implications and questions for contemporary psychotherapy. The fact that Freud was unable to appreciate music did not seem to interfere with a very focused, ultra-brief intervention for the patient completely devoted to music. On the other hand, Mahler's series of death-related traumas, a life-long preoccupation with death and fear of death, were apparently unnoticed by Freud, who neglected fear of death as an important intrapsychic force and provided an explanation to Mahler that was in accordance with his theories. The article concludes with a comment on the speculation about the link between creativity on one hand and unsatisfied libido and psychological conflicts on the other.