The psychical school or psychic school was a
school of thought
A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement.
H ...
in eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century psychiatry that held insanity to be solely caused by psychological (as opposed to bodily) disorder. Early representatives included English surgeon Andrew Harper (?–1790), and German psychiatrists
Johann Gottfried Langermann (1768–1832),
Johann Heinroth (1773–1843) and
Karl Wilhelm Ideler (1795–1860).
Harper concluded that "actual insanity ... seldom arises from any other source than a defection of the mind alone." Langermann called all mental illness a disorder of the spirit. Heinroth developed a "theological psychiatry", arguing that all mental illness is due to moral failing—a weakness of will—and he rejected the idea that bodily pathology may play any role. He asserted that "Innocence will not be perverted into insanity; ... but the soul laden with sin" will be ... "derangement of the mind has its sole origin in the abuse and misuse of freedom." Ideler argued, according to Berthold-Bond,
[ that all mental illness is "a purely psychological phenomenon, a disease of the soul."][
]
See also
* Somatic school Somatic school may refer to those in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who argued for a biological (as opposed to psychological) etiology of insanity; or it may refer to a group of nineteenth-century German psychiatrists, including Carl ...
which argues for a physical cause of mental illness
* Functional neurological symptom disorder
A functional neurologic disorder or functional neurological disorder (FND) is a condition in which patients experience neurological symptoms such as weakness, movement disorders, sensory symptoms and blackouts. Symptoms of functional neurological ...
* Organic brain syndrome
Organic brain syndrome, also known as organic brain disease, organic brain disorder, organic mental syndrome, or organic mental disorder, refers to any syndrome or disorder of mental function whose cause is alleged to be known as organic (physio ...
, not recognized by this theory
References
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History of psychiatry
Psychological schools