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On mental illness: A review

  • In an Out of the Thickets—The 30-Year Odyssey of a Retired Psychiatrist
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Certainly psychiatry is a field of medicine in which science needs metaphysics, if by metaphysics we mean as Willian James did, an unusually stubborn effort to think clearly. Aubrey Lewis “Philosophy and Psychiatry” (P. 178 inThe State of Psychiatry 5)

Abstract

The author reminisces about his training in the '40's, when “everything seemed to be in good order in the house of psychiatry,” and then turns to a philosophical consideration of confusions which have arisen because advancing knowledge inevitably complicates rather than simplifies our understanding of mental health and illness.

He believes that psychiatry must retain and follow a medical model which includes psychological and sociological concepts and thus, by necessity, is multifactorial and dualistic.

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References

  1. Szasz, T.: The Myth of Mental Illness. Hoebner-Harper, 4th edit. New York. 1967.

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  2. Skinner, B.: Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Knopf. New York, 1971.

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  3. Monod, J.: Chance et Necessité. Editions du Seuil, Paris. 1970.

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  4. Malik, S. I.: Quoted in “Psychiatric News.” April 1972.

  5. Lewis, A.; Between guesswork and certainty in psychiatry. The State of Psychiatry. Science House. New York. 1967.

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  6. —: Health as a social concept. The State of Psychiatry. Science House. New York. 1967.

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  7. Oatley, K.: New Scientist. June 1970.

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Authors
  1. Felix von Mendelssohn M.D.
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Additional information

Dr. von Mendelssohn was born in 1918 in Germany and received his medical degree from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1943. He practiced psychiatry in Switzerland until he came to the U. S. in 1950. Following five years of military service, he was for four years Assistant Clinical Director in Charge of Research at N.I.M.H.

His last known affiliation was with Georgetown University Medical School, which is under the impression that he is spending his retirement years in Germany but cannot provide us with an address.

We are hopeful that one of our readers may be able to supply us with a current address so that we can send him the free reprints of his article to which all our authors are entitled.

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von Mendelssohn, F. On mental illness: A review. Psych Quar 48, 352–367 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01562158

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01562158

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