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dc.contributor.authorDening, Tom
dc.date.accessioned2017-11-16T16:11:42Z
dc.date.available2017-11-16T16:11:42Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.identifier.citationLondono, D. E. & Dening, T. (2016). The emergence of psychiatric semiology during the Age of Revolution: evolving concepts of 'normal' and 'pathological'. History of Psychiatry, 27 (2), pp.121-136.en
dc.identifier.other10.1177/0957154X16629044
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12904/9141
dc.description.abstractThis article addresses some important questions in psychiatric semiology. The concept of a sign is crucial in psychiatry. How do signs emerge, and what gives them validity and legitimacy? What are the boundaries of 'normal' and 'pathological' behaviour and mental experiences? To address these issues, we analyse the characteristics and rules that govern semiological signs and clinical elements. We examine 'normality' from the perspective of Georges Canguilehm and compare the differences of 'normal' in physiology and psychiatry. We then examine the history and the philosophical, linguistic and medical-psychiatric origins of semiology during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (the Age of Revolution). The field of rhetoric and oratory has emphasized the importance of passions, emotions and language as applied to signs of madness. Another perspective on semiology, provided by Michel Foucault, lays stress on the concept of 'instinct' and the axis of voluntary-involuntary behaviour. Finally, we analyse how statistics and eugenics have played an important role in our current conceptualization of the norm and therefore the scientific discourse behind the established clinical signs. Copyright © The Author(s) 2016.
dc.description.urihttp://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0957154X16629044
dc.subjectMental healthen
dc.subjectBehaviouren
dc.titleThe emergence of psychiatric semiology during the Age of Revolution: evolving concepts of 'normal' and 'pathological'en
dc.typeArticle
html.description.abstractThis article addresses some important questions in psychiatric semiology. The concept of a sign is crucial in psychiatry. How do signs emerge, and what gives them validity and legitimacy? What are the boundaries of 'normal' and 'pathological' behaviour and mental experiences? To address these issues, we analyse the characteristics and rules that govern semiological signs and clinical elements. We examine 'normality' from the perspective of Georges Canguilehm and compare the differences of 'normal' in physiology and psychiatry. We then examine the history and the philosophical, linguistic and medical-psychiatric origins of semiology during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (the Age of Revolution). The field of rhetoric and oratory has emphasized the importance of passions, emotions and language as applied to signs of madness. Another perspective on semiology, provided by Michel Foucault, lays stress on the concept of 'instinct' and the axis of voluntary-involuntary behaviour. Finally, we analyse how statistics and eugenics have played an important role in our current conceptualization of the norm and therefore the scientific discourse behind the established clinical signs.<br/>Copyright &#xa9; The Author(s) 2016.


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