HISTORY 172 - The History of Medicine and Psychiatry

Institution:

Bard College

Subject:

Description:

This course offers a survey of Western medicine from its beginnings in ancient Greece to the 19th century. The history of psychiatry is considered an integral aspect of the history of medicine: the class charts the development of psychiatry through the key concepts that have shaped assumptions about the nature of emotion, mental illness, and the relation of the brain and the mind. The class addresses the role of the history of reason in identifying correlations between symptoms and causes and in understanding those in whom health or reason has failed. Sessions are mainly conducted on the basis of the study of assigned primary texts and informed by relevant secondary literature. They are structured chronologically but focus on such key concepts as psyche, pneuma, humor, spirit, vital force, nerves-all presented as markers to identify the continuities and ruptures in the beliefs that have informed the theory and practice of medicine and psychiatry.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.bard.edu

Phone Number:

(845) 758-6822

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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