Responsibility in mental disease / by Henry Maudsley.

  • Henry Maudsley
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Responsibility in mental disease / by Henry Maudsley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which may be met with in a particular case, and there- upon making such pathological entities as suicidal mania, homicidal mania, kleptomania, and pyromania, which have no existence as distinct diseases, the aim of the inquirer should be to observe carefully all the bodily and mental features, and to trace patiently in them the evolution of the cause. Given a case of insanity in which homicidal impulse is displayed he will observe with what other symptoms the impulse is associated, will thereupon refer the case to the natural group to which it belongs, and set forth its relations to its cause; so he will present an accurate picture of a real disease, instead of concealing inadequate observation under a pretentious name, and offering the semblance of knowledge by the creation of what can be described only as a morbid metaphysical entity. To the late Dr. Skae of Morningside we are indebted for another praiseworthy attempt to distribute the varieties of mental derangement in natural groups having characteristic features. He proposed to classify insanity, not by its mental symptoms, but by the bodily states of which the mental disorders are the accompaniments; in this way he propounded as many as thirty-five groups, each having a particular bodily condition and a special psychological character. This is not the place to describe and discuss these so-called natural orders, which have yet to establish their claim to acceptance ; it will be sufficient to indicate briefly their character, ia order to show on what physical paths scientific investigation of mental derangement is now proceeding.