Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T14:14:39.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dementia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: a conceptual history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

G. E. Berrios
G. E. Berrios
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

An historical analysis is made of the word and of the concept of ‘dementia’ before the nineteenth century. With regard to the word, it is shown that it had legal and medical meanings and that, while the former developed during the seventeenth century, the latter did so only during the eighteenth century (earlier than psychiatric historians have suggested). As evidence for the latter point, rare historical material on ‘Démence’ from the first edition of the Encyclopédie Française is presented for the first time in English. It is also shown that the legal meaning was finally enshrined in the ‘Code Napoléon’. With regards to the concept of dementia, it is shown that it took final shape in the work of Willis, Hartley and Cullen in whose view it was made to include terminal states of behavioural incompetence due to severe failure of almost any mental function. During this period, dementia was not yet associated with a particular age group nor was specifically defined in terms of cognitive deficit. The origins of the ‘cognitive’ paradigm of dementia and of the clinical boundaries of the future concept of dementia are briefly outlined.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , November 1987 , pp. 829 - 837
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, T. (1615). Mystical Bedlam or the World of Mad-Men. Purflowe and Knight: London.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1828). Amentia In Encyclopädisches Wörterbuch der Medicinischen Wissenschaften. Vol. 2 (ed. von Gräfe, C. F., Hufeland, C. W., Link, H. F., Rudolphi, K. A. and von Siebold, E.), pp. 196–206. J. W. Boike: Berlin.Google Scholar
Astruc, P. (1951). Les sciences médicales et leurs représentants dans l'Encyclopédie. Revue de Histoire de Sciences 4, 359–368.Google Scholar
Baronio, R. (1657). A Physical Dictionary. John Garfield: London.Google Scholar
Battie, W. (1758). A Treatise on Madness. J. Whiston & B. White: London.Google Scholar
Berg, F. (1956). Linne et Sauvages, les rapports entre leurs systèmes nosologiques Lychnos 5, 31–54.Google Scholar
Berrios, G. E. (1981). Delirium and confusion during the nineteenth century: a conceptual history. British Journal of Psychiatry 139, 439–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berrios, G. E. (1984 a). Descriptive psychopathology: conceptual and historical aspects. Psychological Medicine 14, 303–313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berrios, G. E. (1984 b). Epilepsy and insanity during the nineteenth century. Archives of Neurology 41, 978–981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berrios, G. E. (1987 a). Dementia during the nineteenth century and after: a conceptual history. Archives of Neurology (in the press).Google Scholar
Berrios, G. E. (1987 b). Depressive and manic states during the nineteenth century. In Handbook of Affective Disorders, (ed. Gorgotas, T. and Cancro, J.), (in the press). Elsevier: New York.Google Scholar
Blancard, S. (1726). The Physical Dictionary Wherein the Terms of Anatomy, the Names and Causes of Diseases, Chirurgical Instruments, and Their Use, are Accurately Described. John and Benjamin Sprint: London.Google Scholar
Bowman, I. A. (1975). William Cullen (1710–90) and the Primacy of the Nervous System, PhD Thesis, Indiana University. History of Science, Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Harbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Celsus, , (1971). De Medicina (with an English translation by Spencer, W. G.), Loeb Collection, 3 Vols. Heinemann: London.Google Scholar
Chaslin, Ph. (1895). La Confusion Mentale Primitive. Stupidité, Démence Aigue, Stupeur Primitive. Asselin et Houzeau: Paris.Google Scholar
Code Napoléon, , (1808). Edition Originale et Seule Officielle, A Paris, de l'Imprimerie Impériale.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. D. (1983). Historical views and evolution of concepts. In Alzheimer's Disease (ed. Reisberg, B.), pp. 29–43. The Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Coleman, W. (1974). Health and hygiene in the encyclopédie: a medical doctrine for the bourgeoisie. Journal History of Medicine 29, 399–421.Google ScholarPubMed
Conry, Y. (1982). Thomas Willis ou le premier discours rationaliste en pathologie mentale. L'Information Psychiatrique 58, 313–323.Google Scholar
Coslin, R. (1592). Conspiracie, for Pretented Reformation: viz. Presbyterial Discipline. Barker: London.Google Scholar
Cottereau, M. J. (1975). Historique des névroses. La Revue de Medecine 13, 903–907.Google Scholar
Cranefield, P. F. (1961). A seventeenth century view of mental deficiency and schizophrenia: Thomas Willis on ‘stupidity or foolishness’. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 35, 291–316.Google Scholar
Crichton, A. (1798). An inquiry into the nature and origin of mental derangement… 2 Vols. Cadell & Davies: London.Google Scholar
Cullen, W. (1785). Institutions de Médecine-Pratique, traduites fur la quatrième & dernière Edition de l'Ouvrage anglois de M. Cullen, par M Pinel, a Paris, chez Pierre-J. Duplain.Google Scholar
Cullen, W. (1827). The Works of William Cullen. Vol. 2. William Black wood: Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Diderot, & d'Alembert, , (eds) (1754). Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métières, par Une Societé de gens de Lettres. Vol. 4, pp. 807–808. A Paris, Briasson, David, Le Breton, Durand.Google Scholar
Eloy, N. F. I. (1778). d'Aumont. In Dictionnaire Historique de la Médecine Ancienne et Moderne, Vol. 1. p. 227. Mons: Paris.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1963). Naissance de la Clinique, Presses Univeritaires de France: Paris.Google Scholar
Guiraud, P. (1943). Evolution de l'idée de démence. Annales Médico-Psychologiques, 101, 186–199.Google Scholar
Hartley, D. (1834). Observations on man, his frame, his duty and his expectations, pp. 246–247. Thomas Tegg: London.Google Scholar
Henry, G. W. (1941). Organic Mental Diseases. In History of Medical Psychology. (ed. Zilboorg, G. A.), pp. 526–557. Norton and Company: New York.Google Scholar
Hoeldtke, R. (1967). The history of associationism and British medical psychology. Medical History 11, 46–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, S. W. (1970). Force and kindred notions in eighteenth century neurophysiology and medical psychology. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 44, 397–410, and 539–554.Google ScholarPubMed
Kerckringii, T. (1670). Spicilegium Anatomicum, Continens Observationum Anatomicarum Rariorum Centuriam Unam: Andrea Frisii: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
King, L. S. (1966). Boissier de Sauvages and eighteenth century Nosology. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 40, 43–51.Google Scholar
Klein, L. E., Roca, R. P., McArthur, J., Vogelsang, G., Klein, G. B., Kirby, S. & Folstein, M. (1985). Diagnosing dementia: univariate and multivariate analysis of the mental status examination. Journal of the American Geriatric Society 33, 483–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laignel-Lavastine, M. (1951). Les médecins collaborateurs de l'Encyclopédie. Revue de Histoire de Sciences 4, 353–358.Google Scholar
Lantéri, L. G. (1984). Le concept opératoire de démence en médicine. Perspectives Psychiatriques 95, 17–24.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. & Short, C. (1969). A Latin Dictionary. Clarendon Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
López Piñero, J. M. (1983). Historical Origins of the Concept of Neurosis, (translated by Berrios, D.). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
MacDonald, M. (1981). Mystical Bedlam Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Mahendra, B. (1984). Dementia MTP Press: Lancaster.Google ScholarPubMed
Mahendra, B. (1985). Subnormality revisited in early nineteenth century France. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research 29, 391–401.Google Scholar
Marsden, C. D. & Harrison, M. J. G. (1972). Outcome of investigation of patients with presenile dementia. British Medical Journal ii 249–252.Google Scholar
Meynert, T. (1890). Amentia. In Klinische Vorlesungen über Psychiatrie auf Wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen, für Studierende und Ärzte, Juristen und Psychologen, Vol. 9, pp. 1–112. Braumüller, Vienna.Google Scholar
Mora, G. (1970). Antecedent to neurosis. International Journal of Psychiatry 9, 57–60.Google ScholarPubMed
Nott, P. N. & Fleminger, J J. (1975). Presenile dementia: the difficulties of early diagnosis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 51, 210–217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
OED, (1971). The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Pappenheim, E. (1975). On Meynert's Amentia. International Journal of Neurology 9, 310–326.Google ScholarPubMed
Platt, A. M. & Diamond, B. L. (1965). The origins and development of the ‘wild beast test’ concept of mental illness and its relation to theories of criminal responsibility. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences 1, 355–367.Google Scholar
Plum, F. (1979). Dementia: an approaching epidemic. Nature 279, 372–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rath, G. (1959). Neural pathology. A pathogenetic concept of the 18th and 19th centuries. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 33, 526–530.Google Scholar
Report, (1883). Association of German physicians practicing in lunacy. British Medical Journal 1198–1199.Google Scholar
Riese, W. (1945). History and principles of classification of nervous diseases. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 18, 465–512Google Scholar
Salmon, W. (1694). Iatrica: seu parxis medendi or the Practice of curing diseases. Nathan Rolls: London.Google Scholar
Scheerenberger, R. C. (1983). A history of Mental Retardation. Brookes: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Schofield, R E. (1970). Mechanism and Materialism. British Natural Philosophy in an Age of Reason. Princeton University Press: PrincetonGoogle Scholar
Schwab, R. N. & Rex, W. E. (1972). Inventory of Diderot's Encyclopédie. Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 93, 21–22.Google Scholar
Sobrino, (1791). Aumentado o Nuevo Diccionario de las lenguas española, francesa y latina, León de Francia, J. B Delamolliere.Google Scholar
Stephanus, H. (1564). Dictionarium Medicum Vel, Expositiones Vocum Medicinatii, Adverbum Ex…. (no place of publication). Huldrici Figgeri.Google Scholar
Torack, R. M. (1983). The early history of senile dementia In Alzheimer's Disease, (ed. Reisberg, B.), pp. 23–28. The Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Vinchon, J. & Vie, J. (1928). Un maître de la neuropsychiatrie au XVIII Siècle: Thomas Willis (1662–1675). Annales Médico-Psychologiques 86, 109–144.Google Scholar
Walker, N. (1968). Crime and Insanity in England Vol. 1: Historical Perspectives. University Press: Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Warren, H. C. (1921). History of the Association Psychology, pp. 50–79. Charles Scribner: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willis, T. (1684). Practice of Physick. Translated by Pordage, S. pp. 209–214. T. Dring, C. Harper and J. Leigh: London.Google Scholar