The History of Psychiatry: A Cultural and Bibliographical Survey

In the last two decades, the number of publications dedicated to the history of psychiatry and to collateral fields of behavioral sciences has increased considerably. A review of this literature in the United States, as well as in Europe, would probably reveal some hundreds of articles. This fact in itself poses two important points: the reason for this new historical orientation of American psychiatry and, as a consequence, the “rapprochement” of American to European psychiatry which traditionally has been much more historically oriented. The time now seems ready for a discussion of these points. In a way, this is very much in the spirit of the renewed interest in the historical sciences in this country in these last two decades.

Any number of reasons could perhaps be advanced to explain this new interest: (1) the desire to illustrate in depth the previous attitudes toward mental patients and systems of treatment of mental diseases in the light of a broader historical background, perhaps with the aim that this new knowledge will throw light on the present attitudes and systems, as well as being of assistance concerning the future; (2) the exposure of many Americans during World War II—and uninterruptedly since then—to older European and non-Western cultures and, consequently, the desire to likewise find a corresponding historical background in this country; (3) finally, the level of maturity achieved by psychiatry—and in particular by psychoanalysis—which, having grown now to the level of a respectable and accepted field in