Sympathy (medicine)

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Sympathy was already used as a conceptual concept in a medical sense by the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates of Kos (around 460-370 BC). It means something like “compassion” or “ pity ” ( ancient Greek συν “together with” and παθειν “feel” and “suffer”). The ancient Greek word παθειν represents an opposition word in which the feelings of compassion and compassion that are assessed as contradicting and ambivalent are expressed. (a) (a) This term was also used by ancient physicians in the first Christian centuries, such as Aretaios (approx. 80–138 AD) or Galenos (approx. 129–200 AD). It was also used to mean “agreement” ( Latin consensus ) and expresses a relationship between the organs (the consensus partium mediated via nerves or the nervous system ) or a psychological connection with individual diseased organs, such as between the lungs and the psychological one Alteration in the case of pneumonia . The vitalistic designation of the sympathetic nervous system as the "vital nerve" by Jacob Winslow in 1722 is derived from this emotional concern or from the "compassion" of one's own soul that can be determined in the case of somatic diseases .

Georg Ernst Stahl

Georg Ernst Stahl (1659–1734) used the term “sympathetic” to differentiate it from the term “pathetic”. He wanted to differentiate between different types of mental illness. By sympathetic mental illnesses he meant the disorders caused by organs, by pathetic mental illnesses he meant those disorders that were not caused by an organ disease. This distinction shattered the old somatism that had dominated psychiatric thinking since Hippocrates. While Stahl did not write very much about mental illness, his classification has been adopted by many theorists. Stahl's “pathetic mental illnesses” were later described not only as disorders with a functional or psychogenic trigger, but were also influential in the pathology of endogenous psychoses . Authors who took up such thoughts were Johann Friedrich Zückert , Christian Gottlieb Ludwig , Andrew Harper and Johann Gottfried Langermann . (a) As the history of functional syndromes shows, the term “sympathy” has contributed to the conflict between psychics and somatics .

Robert Whytt

Robert Whytt (1714–1766) called his first experiments (1751) on reflexes "sympathy". (b) The work was noticed by the vitalists , who continued it and also attached importance to the "harmony of nerve force", as it is e.g. B. shows different tasks in different parts of the central nervous system such as the spinal cord and brain. See the works of Johann August Unzer , Georg Prochaska and Wilhelm Griesinger .

Psychic

The term sympathy also plays a role in medicine, as in moral treatment , as it is often and a. was also represented by the psychics , the English moral philosophy is an important element. Shaftesbury has the sympathy as an important aspect of the Sensus communis viewed. At the same time, this philanthropic factor is often overlooked by many psychics, especially in Germany - in view of the compulsory treatment they consider necessary . Instead of showing sympathy, the demand for adjustment towards the patient is emphasized. (a)

Pierre Pomme

Pierre Pomme (1735-1812) used in his 1763 published treatise on the "vapeurs" the term of sympathy also in connection with the new nerve theories. Hysteria and hypochondria can be explained by the too great - sympathetic - closeness of the organism to itself. This closeness, in turn, is caused by the shrinking and drying of the nervous system (“racornissement des nerfs”). (b)

Montpellier School

The school of Montpellier also used the term “sympathy” in the medical sense, see also → Paul Joseph Barthez (1734–1806). Under "sympathy" one understood the correspondence of the autonomous laws of the organs with the cooperation of the organs as a whole organism.

Simon-Auguste Tissot

Simon-Auguste Tissot (1728–1797) relates the term “sympathy” to the events of the outside world. People suffering from nervousness have a too sensitive nervous system and at the same time a soul that is too soulful. You relate the events of the outside world sympathetically compassionately to yourself. Through this z. Sometimes the nervous system is extremely sensitive to resonance and can get into a state of extreme irritation, so that the impressions suffered can no longer be processed. The individual, however, can be blamed for this, since he has preferred the unnatural stimuli of social life to the always beneficial effects of natural existence. Tissot is therefore to be seen as a representative of moral treatment . (c)

Franz Anton Mesmer

Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) also tried to emphasize the ideas of his time, the sensitivity, irritability, the string theory of the nerves, the assumptions of distant "sympathetic" effects, the vitalistic life force , the direct influence of nature, as was done by Jean Jacques Rousseau and Simon-Auguste Tissot was done. He wanted to combine these forces through the physical analogy with gravity, electricity and magnetism in a single rational and natural explanatory scheme. He therefore saw himself as an enlightener and in his last work, "Mesmerism or System of Interactions" in 1814, pleaded for a democratic state system and a religion similar to the cult of reason of the revolution. (d)

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), German philosopher, discussed issues of physical and mental health with psychics . He saw sympathy as an appearance of the mind . (e)

Max Scheler

The designs of Max Scheler (1874-1928) to sympathy touching in its philosophical anthropology medicine in so far as those used in his work terms such as lifestyle , body feeling Vital disorder, also known as so-called. Physical close feelings or as Zönästhesien be construed. (b) Max Scheler is received by Hans Walter Gruhle (1880–1958). (b) The vitalists and many other philosophical and medical schools viewed sympathy as the comprehensive term for inner soul-physical and outer worldly influences. They saw in this the prerequisite for a cosmically harmonious harmony.

Carl Gustav Jung

For the phenomena of synchronicity , Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) considers the term sympathy used by romantic medicine to be appropriate. Synchronicity does not only mean context, but also simultaneity in the absence of a causal relationship . The meaning of sympathy would then have to be adapted to this.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Corpus Hippocraticum : Regulations 14.
  2. ↑ a b Hans Walter Gruhle : Understanding Psychology . Experiential theory. 2nd edition, Georg Thieme, Stuttgart 1956; (a) p. 63 on quotation “Max Scheler”; (b) pp. 42 f., 50, 52, 57, 58, 63-68, 129.

  3. ^ A b Max Scheler : Essence and Forms of Sympathy . [ 2 1923] 5th edition, Cohen-Verlag, Bonn, 1948; (a) Distinction between empathy and empathy or pity: (“I can empathize with you very well, but I have no pity for you.”); (b) Re. “Emotions of body and life”: The author uses these terms, which mainly go back to vitalism.

  4. ^ Otto Westphal , Theodor Wieland , Heinrich Huebschmann: life regulator. Of hormones, vitamins, ferments and other active ingredients. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1941 (= Frankfurter Bücher. Research and Life. Volume 1), in particular pp. 9–35 ( History of hormone research ), here: p. 9.
  5. ↑ See Bartholomäus Bausner : De consensu partium humani corporis Libri III. In quibus Ea omnia, quae ad quamque Actionem, que quomodo in Homine, concurrunt, recensentur, actionum modus ut et consensus ratio explicatur, adeoque Universa Hominis Oeconomia traditur , Amsterdam 1656. (Three books on the harmony of the human body parts, in which all those Things are enumerated which contribute to their functions to a certain extent, especially in humans, with explanations of the functions as well as the rationality of the relationships and which also deal with the entire balance of the human being.).
  6. ^ Stanley Finger : Minds behind the brain. A history of the pioneers and their discoveries . Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-518182-4 ; P. 46.
  7. ↑ Peter R. Hofstätter (Ed.): Psychology . The Fischer Lexicon, Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt a. M. 1972, ISBN 3-436-01159-2 ; P. 269 on Lemma "Psychosomatic disorders".
  8. ↑ Hermann Triepel : The anatomical names . Your derivation and pronunciation. 26th edition, published by JF Bergmann, Munich 1962, edited by Robert Herrlinger ; P. 72 on Lemma “sympathicus”.
  9. ↑ a b Erwin H. Ackerknecht : Brief history of psychiatry . 3rd edition, Enke, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-432-80043-6 : (a) p. 36 on Stw. "Stahl"; (b) p. 37 to district “Whytt”.

  10. ^ Wilhelm Griesinger : About psychological reflexions . In: Treatises. Vol. I, p. 4.
  11. ↑ Karl Jaspers : General Psychopathology . 9th edition, Springer, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-540-03340-8 ; Pp. 130 ff., 133 ff., 150 f., 156 on Stw. “Psychic reflex arc”.
  12. ^ Shaftesbury : Characteristics . Treatise II. See in particular Part III, Sect. I.
  13. ↑ Hans-Georg Gadamer : Truth and Method. Basic features of a philosophical hermeneutics . Collected works, JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1990, Hermeneutics I, Volume I, ISBN 3-16-145616-5 ; on Shaftesbury: p. 29 f .; In continuation of the Shaftesbury tradition, the hermeneutic considerations by Johann Gustav Droysen p. 217 and 219 and by Wilhelm Dilthey on “sympathy”: p. 236 f.
  14. ↑ a b c d e 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) pp. 34, 37, 42, 78, 205 on Stw. “Shaftesbury”; (b) p. 129 to district “Pomme”; (c) p. 131 on district “Tissot”; (d) p. 134 on district “Mesmer”; (e) p. 263 to district "Schelling"




  15. ^ François Ledermann: La psychiatrie française et les médicaments . French fries, pinel, esquirol, morel. In: Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie, 70 e année, N. 254, 1982. pp. 189-206 [70. Jg., 254: 189-206 (1982)].
  16. ↑ Pierre Pomme : Traité des affections vaporeuses des deux sexes ou maladies nerveuses vulgairement appelées maux de nerfs . Lyon 1763; P. 87 f.
  17. ↑ Georgi Schischkoff (Ed.): Philosophical dictionary. 14th edition, Alfred-Kröner, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-01321-5 ; P. 680 on Wb.-Lemma "Sympathy".
  18. ^ Carl Gustav Jung : Synchronicity as a principle of acausal relationships . In: Collected Works, Volume 8 “The Dynamics of the Unconscious”, Walter-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, paperback, special edition, ISBN 3-530-40083-1 ; P. 482, § 850 on tax “sympathy”.