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<em>Between Sanity and Madness: Mental Illness from Ancient Greece to the Neuroscientific Era examines several perennial issues about mental illness: how different societies have distinguished mental disorders from normality; whether mental illnesses are similar to or different from organic conditions; and the ways in which different eras conceive of the causes of mental disorder. It begins with the earliest depictions of mental illness in Ancient Greek literature, philosophy, and medicine and concludes with the portrayals found in modern neuroscience. In contrast to the tremendous advances other branches of medicine display in answering questions about the nature, causes, and treatments of physical diseases, current psychiatric knowledge about what qualities of madness distinguish it from sanity, the resemblance of mental and physical pathologies, and the kinds of factors that lead people to become mentally ill does not show any steady growth or, arguably, much progress. The immense recent technological advances in brain science have not yet led to corresponding improvements in understandings of and explanations for mental illnesses. These perplexing phenomena remain almost as mysterious now as they were millennia ago.
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Between Sanity and Madness Between Sanity and Madness Mental Illness from Ancient Greece to the Neuroscientific Era ALLAN V. HORWITZ, PH.D. Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Emeritus Rutgers University Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Horwitz, Allan V., author. Title: Between sanity and madness : mental illness from ancient greece to the neuroscientific era / Allan V. Horwitz. Description: New York : Oxford University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2019032581 (print) | LCCN 2019032582 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190907860 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190907884 (epub) | ISBN 9780190907877 (updf) | ISBN 9780190907891 (online) Subjects: LCSH: Mental illness. | Psychology, Pathological. | Neurosciences. Classification: LCC RC469 .H68 2020 (print) | LCC RC469 (ebook) | DDC 616.89—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032581 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019032582 This material is not intended to be, and should not be considered, a substitute for medical or other professional advice. Treatment for the conditions described in this material is highly dependent on the individual circumstances. And, while this material is designed to offer accurate information with respect to the subject matter covered and to be current as of the time it was written, research and knowledge about medical and health issues is constantly evolving and dose schedules for medications are being revised continually, with new side effects recognized and accounted for re