A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry

About this Book

• A tremendous range of knowledge is made available, from the history of symptoms, to the growth of neuroscience, to the personalities that made the discipline
• Highly convenient access: the alphabetical order of a dictionary, combined with a comprehensive index
• Anyone interested in clinical psychiatry, psychology, the neurosciences or medical history will want a copy of this invaluable reference work in his or her own library

This is the first historical dictionary of psychiatry. It covers the subject from autism to Vienna, and includes the key concepts, individuals, places, and institutions that have shaped the evolution of psychiatry and the neurosciences. An introduction puts broad trends and international differences in context, with an extensive bibliography for further reading. Each entry gives the main dates, themes, and personalities involved in the unfolding of the topic. Longer entries describe the evolution of such subjects as depression, schizophrenia, and psychotherapy. The book gives ready reference to when things happened in psychiatry, how and where they happened, and who made the main contributions. In addition, it touches on such social themes as "women in psychiatry," "criminality and psychiatry," and "homosexuality and psychiatry." A comprehensive index makes immediately accessible subjects that do not appear in the alphabetical listing. Bringing together information from the English, French, German, Italian, and Scandinavian languages, the dictionary rests on an enormous base of primary sources that cover the growth of psychiatry through all of Western society.

Readership: Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health-care professionals; neuroscientists; historians of medicine; laymen with an interest in psychiatric illness or medical history

Author Information

Edward Shorter, Professor of the History of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada