Jack Pressman and the future of the history of psychiatry

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Volumn 74, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 778-785

  Burnham, John C ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; FORECASTING; HISTORY; HUMAN; PSYCHIATRY; UNITED STATES;

FORECASTING; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; PSYCHIATRY; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0034565237     PISSN: 00075140     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/bhm.2000.0165     Document Type: Review

References (31)

1. John C. Burnham, "The Past of the Future of Medicine," Bull. Hist. Med., 1993, 67:1-27.
2. Nicholas Rescher, Predicting the Future: An Introduction to the Theory of Forecasting (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998).
3. Nancy Tomes, "The Anatomy of Madness: New Directions in the History of Psychiatry," Soc. Stud. Sci., 1987, 17:358-70, quotation on pp. 358-59.
4. It is of course only fair to note that some further work in this tradition has won recognition because of the sophistication and ability of the particular author, exemplified especially by Elizabeth Lunbeck, The Psychiatric Persuasion: Knowledge, Gender, and Power in Modern America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
5. Indeed, if there was an economic force, it extended the life of electrotherapeutics, in the form of numerous quack devices that persisted through much of the twentieth century. Lisa Rosner ("The Professional Context of Electrotherapeutics," J. Hist. Med. & Allied Sci., 1988, 43: 64-82) found that the X ray effectively drove electrotherapeutics out of regular medicine. Or see Norman Gevitz, "Autonomous Profession or Medical Specialty? The Stomatological Movement and American Dentistry," Bull. Hist. Med., 1988, 62:407-28.
6. Indeed, if there was an economic force, it extended the life of electrotherapeutics, in the form of numerous quack devices that persisted through much of the twentieth century. Lisa Rosner ("The Professional Context of Electrotherapeutics," J. Hist. Med. & Allied Sci., 1988, 43: 64-82) found that the X ray effectively drove electrotherapeutics out of regular medicine. Or see Norman Gevitz, "Autonomous Profession or Medical Specialty? The Stomatological Movement and American Dentistry," Bull. Hist. Med., 1988, 62:407-28.
7. Pharmacognosy is dealt with to some extent in John C. Burnham, Jelliffe: American Psychoanalyst and Physician (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983). Perhaps one could cite the incidents in which various forms of psychotherapy fell out of favor in Germany and Russia for political - and therefore economic - reasons in the period between the two world wars. Local historians of the specialty did, it is true, devise temporary accounts to explain and justify those excisions, but within a generation or two, even those histories were back into the world mainstream. See, for example, Geoffrey Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich: The Göring Institute, 2d ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1997), which has some recent bibliographic citations added; and Alexander Etkind, Eros of the Impossible: The History of Psychoanalysis in Russia, trans. Noah and Maria Rubins (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997).
8. Pharmacognosy is dealt with to some extent in John C. Burnham, Jelliffe: American Psychoanalyst and Physician (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983). Perhaps one could cite the incidents in which various forms of psychotherapy fell out of favor in Germany and Russia for political - and therefore economic - reasons in the period between the two world wars. Local historians of the specialty did, it is true, devise temporary accounts to explain and justify those excisions, but within a generation or two, even those histories were back into the world mainstream. See, for example, Geoffrey Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich: The Göring Institute, 2d ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1997), which has some recent bibliographic citations added; and Alexander Etkind, Eros of the Impossible: The History of Psychoanalysis in Russia, trans. Noah and Maria Rubins (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997).
9. Pharmacognosy is dealt with to some extent in John C. Burnham, Jelliffe: American Psychoanalyst and Physician (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983). Perhaps one could cite the incidents in which various forms of psychotherapy fell out of favor in Germany and Russia for political - and therefore economic - reasons in the period between the two world wars. Local historians of the specialty did, it is true, devise temporary accounts to explain and justify those excisions, but within a generation or two, even those histories were back into the world mainstream. See, for example, Geoffrey Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich: The Göring Institute, 2d ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1997), which has some recent bibliographic citations added; and Alexander Etkind, Eros of the Impossible: The History of Psychoanalysis in Russia, trans. Noah and Maria Rubins (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997).
10. In his book of seven hundred pages, Speert hardly mentions midwives, and certainly not in the modern era: Harold Speert, Obstetric and Gynecological Milestones: Essays in Eponymy (New York: Macmillan, 1958).
11. Two scholarly works are Jane B. Donegan, Women and Men Midwives: Medicine, Morality, and Misogyny in Early America (Westport. Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); and Judy Barrett Litoff, The American Midwife Debate: A Sourcebook on Its Modern Origins (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986). And Speert, in the 1996 revision of his 1958 book, wrote the history of midwives back in.
12. Two scholarly works are Jane B. Donegan, Women and Men Midwives: Medicine, Morality, and Misogyny in Early America (Westport. Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); and Judy Barrett Litoff, The American Midwife Debate: A Sourcebook on Its Modern Origins (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986). And Speert, in the 1996 revision of his 1958 book, wrote the history of midwives back in.
13. See, among his many publications, Gerald N. Grob, From Asylum to Community: Mental Health Policy in Modern America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
14. Andrew Scull, "Psychiatry and Its Historians," Hist. Psychiatry, 1991, 2: 239-50, uses succeeding generations in a broader timeline to frame a special issue of this journal on the historiography of psychiatry; and see also George Mora, "The History of Psychiatry in the United States: Historiographic and Theoretical Considerations," ibid., 1992, 3: 187-201.
15. Andrew Scull, "Psychiatry and Its Historians," Hist. Psychiatry, 1991, 2: 239-50, uses succeeding generations in a broader timeline to frame a special issue of this journal on the historiography of psychiatry; and see also George Mora, "The History of Psychiatry in the United States: Historiographic and Theoretical Considerations," ibid., 1992, 3: 187-201.
16. Emil Kraepelin, One Hundred Years of Psychiatry [trans. Wade Baskin] (New York: Philosophical Library, 1962; original published in 1917).
17. Ibid., p. 99. Background appears in Patrick Vandermeersch, "The Victory of Psychiatry over Demonology: The Origin of the Nineteeth-Century Myth," Hist. Psychiatry, 1991, 2: 351-63.
18. Ibid., p. 99. Background appears in Patrick Vandermeersch, "The Victory of Psychiatry over Demonology: The Origin of the Nineteeth-Century Myth," Hist. Psychiatry, 1991, 2: 351-63.
19. Gregory Zilboorg and George W. Henry, A History of Medical Psychology (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941); Franz G. Alexander and Sheldon T. Selesnick, The History of Psychiatry: An Evaluation of Psychiatric Thought and Practice from Prehistoric Times to the Present (New York: Harper & Row, 1966). There were a number of other books in this tradition, such as Nolan D. C. Lewis, A Short History of Psychiatric Achievement (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941). And see the particularly appropriate Hilde Bruch, "100 Years of Psychiatry (Kraepelin) - 50 Years Later," Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 1969, 21:257-61.
20. Gregory Zilboorg and George W. Henry, A History of Medical Psychology (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941); Franz G. Alexander and Sheldon T. Selesnick, The History of Psychiatry: An Evaluation of Psychiatric Thought and Practice from Prehistoric Times to the Present (New York: Harper & Row, 1966). There were a number of other books in this tradition, such as Nolan D. C. Lewis, A Short History of Psychiatric Achievement (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941). And see the particularly appropriate Hilde Bruch, "100 Years of Psychiatry (Kraepelin) - 50 Years Later," Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 1969, 21:257-61.
21. Gregory Zilboorg and George W. Henry, A History of Medical Psychology (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941); Franz G. Alexander and Sheldon T. Selesnick, The History of Psychiatry: An Evaluation of Psychiatric Thought and Practice from Prehistoric Times to the Present (New York: Harper & Row, 1966). There were a number of other books in this tradition, such as Nolan D. C. Lewis, A Short History of Psychiatric Achievement (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941). And see the particularly appropriate Hilde Bruch, "100 Years of Psychiatry (Kraepelin) - 50 Years Later," Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 1969, 21:257-61.
22. Gregory Zilboorg and George W. Henry, A History of Medical Psychology (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941); Franz G. Alexander and Sheldon T. Selesnick, The History of Psychiatry: An Evaluation of Psychiatric Thought and Practice from Prehistoric Times to the Present (New York: Harper & Row, 1966). There were a number of other books in this tradition, such as Nolan D. C. Lewis, A Short History of Psychiatric Achievement (New York: W. W. Norton, 1941). And see the particularly appropriate Hilde Bruch, "100 Years of Psychiatry (Kraepelin) - 50 Years Later," Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 1969, 21:257-61.
23. Edward Shorter, A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac (New York: Wiley, 1997).
24. George Mora and Jeanne L. Brand, eds., Psychiatry and Its History: Methodological Problems in Research (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1970).
25. Roy Porter and Mark S. Micale, "Introduction: Reflections on Psychiatry and Its Histories," in Discovering the History of Psychiatry, ed. Mark S. Micale and Roy Porter (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 4.
26. Tomes, "Anatomy of Madness" (n. 3), p. 360.
27. Porter and Micale, "Introduction" (n. 16), p. 4.
28. The authors were often sophisticated, but they did not reflect a postmodern demedicalization of the history of psychiatry or, for example, the decline of standard thresholds in physiologically oriented medicine - a startling departure from standardization in the medical "gaze" that paralleled the romantic individualism of the deinstitutionalizers.
29. See, e.g., Georg G. Iggers's summary, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge (Hanover, N.H.: Wesleyan University Press, 1997), just one of many signs of the new eclectic approach that characterized the work of most thoughtful historians. Some historians retreating from the 1980s now use the oxymoronic phrase, "postmodern realism."
30. Joel Braslow, Mental Ills and Bodily Cures: Psychiatric Treatment in the First Half of the Twentieth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
31. I believe that a strong foreshadowing of this development can also be found in the work of Gerald Grob.