Somatics

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Somatics are the representatives of the generalizing theoretical approach that mental illness is always a somatic illness. The term is derived from the ancient Greek Soma ( σῶμα ) = body. This view represents the medical-historical opposite position to the view of psychics , according to which mental illness is to be regarded as an expression of a disease of the soul or the spirit . According to the ideas of the somatics, the soul cannot become sick because it is divine. Wilhelm Griesinger (1817–1868) specified the somatic standpoint to the extent that mental illnesses are diseases of the brain . It should be noted that there has been a somatism in the form of humoral and solidarity pathology since ancient times . The new scientific research results tended to favor the solidarity-pathological way of thinking. In contrast to the representatives of medicine who were oriented towards natural philosophy, the somatics were more often involved in the practical care of psychiatric patients and so were most of the institutional directors of this time (such as Maximilian Jacobi , Carl Friedrich Flemming , Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Roller , Ernst Gottlob Pienitz and Christian Friedrich Nasse ) were somatics, so they were of particular importance for the development of psychiatry. The turning away from ontological and theological ideas by the somatics and thus the liberation of the mentally ill from religious guilt, for example, promoted the development of a psychiatric science.

History of Psychiatry

The most important research results for somatics were the physiology of Johannes Müller and the cell theory of Theodor Schwann and Matthias Jacob Schleiden . At the beginning of the 19th century, somatics were Carl Friedrich Flemming (1799–1880), Johann Baptist Friedreich (1796–1862), Maximilian Jacobi (1775–1858), Christian Friedrich Nasse (1778–1851), and Johann Christian Reil (1759–1813 ), later mainly Wilhelm Griesinger (1817–1868), Theodor Meynert (1833–1892) and Kurt Schneider (1887–1967). Even Johann Christian August Grohmann and Carl Philipp Möller among the Somatikern. Franz Josef Gall (1758–1828) and Andrew Combe (1797–1848) are also counted among the forerunners of the somatics . The idea of ​​somatism was based on Georg Ernst Stahl (1659–1734) and his theory of the double possibility of disease development according to the Cartesian distinction between soul and body, see the body-soul problem and the theory of animism founded by Stahl . Correspondingly, the doctrine of the psychics also resulted as an absolutization of one of the two possibilities distinguished by Stahl. The doctrine of the physical causation of mental illness had first made a name for itself in Scotland by Robert Whytt (1714–1766) and William Cullen (1710–1790). Wilhelm Griesinger helped the point of view of somatism gain practical validity in Germany with the establishment of consultation hour psychiatry , especially since the methods of morally based compulsory treatment customary in institutional psychiatry at that time were thereby restricted.

Current state

The logically compelling conclusion of the somatics standpoint culminates in the belief in the exclusive effectiveness of somatotherapy . The often ideological arguments between somatics and psychics can still be felt today. The view of psychophysical correlation , which unites both approaches, can be seen as the result of the often fruitless earlier arguments. Today, both attitudes are equally important.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Bodamer : On the phenomenology of the historical spirit in psychiatry. In: The neurologist. Volume 19, 1948, pp. 299-310, here: p. 305.
  2. ↑ a b Rudolf Degkwitz u. a. (Ed.): Mentally ill. Introduction to Psychiatry for Clinical Study. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-541-09911-9 - (a) on “Definition of terms and theoretical approach”: pages 451 b , 16-1-2; (b) on “essential representatives”: page 451 b
  3. ↑ a b c d Ackerknecht, Erwin H .: Brief history of psychiatry . Enke, Stuttgart 3 1985, ISBN 3-432-80043-6 ; (a) to Stw. "New vs. old somatism ”page 36; (b) on Stw. “Stahl's teaching” page 36 f .; (cd) on "Somatiker", pages 15, 36 f., 42, 52, 53, 57, 59 61, 74.
  4. ↑ Magdalena Frühinsfeld: Brief outline of psychiatry. In: Anton Müller. First insane doctor at the Juliusspital in Würzburg: life and work. A short outline of the history of psychiatry up to Anton Müller. Medical dissertation Würzburg 1991, pp. 9–80 ( Brief outline of the history of psychiatry ) and 81–96 ( History of psychiatry in Würzburg to Anton Müller ), pp. 62 f.
  5. ^ Klaus Dörner : Citizens and Irre. On the social history and sociology of science in psychiatry. 2nd Edition. Frankfurt am Main 1984, p. 276.
  6. ↑ Magdalena Frühinsfeld: Brief outline of psychiatry. In: Anton Müller. First insane doctor at the Juliusspital in Würzburg: life and work. A short outline of the history of psychiatry up to Anton Müller. Medical dissertation Würzburg 1991, pp. 9–80 ( Brief outline of the history of psychiatry ) and 81–96 ( History of psychiatry in Würzburg to Anton Müller ), pp. 55 and 62.
  7. ↑ Peters, Uwe Henrik : Dictionary of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich 3 1984; Dictionary Stw. Somatiker, page 523 f.
  8. ^ A b Klaus Dörner : 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 ; (a) to “Overview”: pages 180-189, 287, 291, 295-303, 305, 316, 324; to Stw. “Andrew Combe”: page 111; (b) Re. “Consultation hours and institutional psychiatry”: pages 317, 325
  9. ↑ Jaspers, Karl : Allgemeine Psychopathologie . Springer, Berlin 9 1973, ISBN 3-540-03340-8 ; Appendix: History of Psychopathology as a Science, page 709 f.