John Brown (medic)

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John Brown

John Brown (* 1735 or 1736 in Buncle, Berwickshire / Scotland; † October 7, 1788 in London ) was a Scottish doctor and neurophysiologist in Edinburgh and London ( Kingdom of Great Britain ).

Life

Brown grew up in Duns and had originally followed a theological training until 1759, but then turned to medical training and work in accordance with the moral and practical interests of his time. Brown was a student of William Cullen , who initially hired him as a tutor. Cullen had already extended his doctrine of nerve force to all diseases. Brown pursued this path further by reducing the contemporary neurophysiological findings to nervous excitability and generalizing them for all diseases. However, by exaggerating Cullen's teaching, he fell out with his former patron. His doctrine, known as Brownianism , recalls, in accordance with the principles of moral treatment , the desired middle path between arousal of passions and moderation through reason.

Meyer's Konversationslexikon from 1892 reports on Brown's biography: “Brown (...) got into dire straits through an unregulated life, excessive use of spirits and opium, sank ever deeper after he moved to London in 1786 and died there (October 7, 1788) at the stroke flow. "( Stroke flow an old term for stroke or apoplexia cerebri)

Services

Brown's performance remains unaffected by the circumstances of his death. Obviously, his most recently cultivated lifestyle was in accordance with his theory. The terms sthenia and asthenia have survived in psychiatric literature to this day, see also the term neurasthenia made popular by George Miller Beard . - Klaus Dörner believes that Brown's achievements already belong to another epoch, which he undoubtedly qualifies as a transition to the romantic epoch, see also the reception of Brownianism . Brownianism is only related to psychiatry because it claims to be valid for all medicine. On the other hand, this general validity can also be viewed as an early form of psychosomatic medicine .

In J. Brown's nosology, illnesses are understood as an expression of too much or too little arousal. These are in turn due to a disproportionate external and internal stimuli and the excitability of the organism itself. Stimuli are understood as conditions such as temperature, air conditions, nutrients, but also psychological affects. He divides the diseases into asthenic diseases and sthenic diseases. The former are the result of too little stimulation and the latter the result of too much arousal.

plant

  • Elementa medicinae . Edinburgh 1780

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Dörner, Klaus : Citizens and Irre . On the social history and sociology of science in psychiatry. [1969] Fischer Taschenbuch, Bücher des Wissens, Frankfurt / M 1975, ISBN 3-436-02101-6 ; Pages 64 f., 225 f.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Brown, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish doctor
DATE OF BIRTH 1735
PLACE OF BIRTH Berwickshire , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1788
Place of death London