The continuity of biological models in psychiatry: melancholy as brain disease in scholastic psychology

This paper emphasizes the long lines of tradition biological concepts have in the explanation of mental disorders in classical antiquity and the middle ages; yet it also portrays rivalling theories. I describe both medical and philosophical approaches, as they merged into a quite coherent model during scholasticism. The work of Albert the Great serves as an example for this model. A last paragraph shows its plausibility for authors even of the 17th century and discusses the epistomological basis of dualistic systems.