Paranoia and dysphoria: historical developments, current concepts

Regarding diagnostic criteria for paranoia (delusional disorder) today psychiatry usually refers to Kraepelin, suggesting that this diagnostic category has existed more or less unchanged since the end of the 19th century. But, reviewing German literature on this topic, one can find a lively discussion with regard to definition, development and course. In this context, the position of affective symptomatology - especially dysphoria with its various meanings - is of major interest. This paper aims at clarifying some definitory questions and at recalling the 'old' paranoia dispute which is worth rediscovering as a stimulation for modern classification and clinical practice.     

Organized camping: a historical perspective

Organized camping has been part of the fabric of American culture for more than 150 years. Today, organized camps serve more than 11 million youth annually, a significant departure from the first camps that were created to address the challenges of urban living during the Industrial Revolution. This article provides a brief historical perspective of organized camp and its evolution.     

A brief historical perspective on the advent of brain oscillations in the biological and psychological disciplines

We aim to review the historical evolution that has led to the study of the brain (body)-mind relationship based on brain oscillations, to outline and illustrate the principles of neuro-oscillatory dynamics using research findings. The paper addresses the relevant developments in behavioral sciences after Wundt established the science of psychology, and developments in the neurosciences after alpha and gamma oscillations were discovered by Berger and Adrian, respectively. Basic neuroscientific studies have led to a number of principles: (1) spontaneous EEG is composed of a set of oscillatory components, (2) the brain responds with oscillatory activity, (3) poststimulus oscillatory activity is a function of prestimulus activity, (4) the brain response results from a superposition of oscillatory components, (5) there are multiplicities with regard to oscillations and functions, and (6) oscillations are spatially integrated. Findings of clinical studies suggest that oscillatory responses can serve as biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the field of psychology is still making limited use of neuro-oscillatory dynamics for a bio-behavioral understanding of cognitive-affective processes.     

Jungians and the rise of psychotherapy in Japan: a brief historical note

Scholars of transcultural psychiatry have long wondered why psychoanalysis has remained marginal in Japan, despite its early introduction there. Psychotherapy, however, has been steadily growing in popularity, and Jungians have played no small part in this development. This article provides a brief historical sketch of psychotherapy in Japan by focusing on how Jungians have cultivated a following through imaginative cultural critiques and therapeutic practices such as sandplay therapy. The article also touches upon the particularly Jungian themes that have appealed to popular audiences, as well as the dilemmas psychotherapists have encountered in their attempts to institutionalize psychotherapy as a form of clinical practice in Japan.     

Molecular imaging of the brain: a historical perspective

The rapid expansion of modern molecular imaging methods since the time of their initial conception in the 1970s has given rise to numerous discoveries of molecular mechanisms that underlie brain function in health and disease. Uses in clinical diagnosis and therapy monitoring are still evolving. Future clinical trials, in which molecular imaging is imbedded and correlated with clinical outcomes, will be critical to advancing new uses for patient management. Receptor occupancy studies are already well integrated into many drug development studies and clinical trials; such studies will provide a basis for new studies that will further advance clinical uses of brain molecular imaging.     

The pyramidal syndrome and the pyramidal tract: a brief historical note

The discovery of the pyramidal syndrome and tract is briefly reviewed with emphasis on a few key historical aspects. The pursuit of the relationship between the lateralized deficits resulting from contralateral head trauma begins in the fourth century BC with the Hippocratic School and continues until the present day.     

Psychiatry and political-institutional abuse from the historical perspective: the ethical lessons of the Nuremberg Trial on their 60th anniversary

Sixty years ago at the Nuremberg Trials, 23 Nazi leaders were tried as war criminals, in what was known as "The Doctors' Trial". This trial exposed a perverse system of the criminal use of medicine in the fields of public health and human research. These practices, in which racial hygiene constituted one of the fundamental principles and euthanasia programmes were the most obvious consequence, violated the majority of known bioethical principles. Psychiatry played a central role in these programmes, and the mentally ill were the principal victims. The aim of the present work is to review, from the historical perspective, the antecedents of the shameful euthanasia programmes for the mentally ill, the procedures involved in their implementation and the use of mentally ill people as research material. The Nuremberg Code, a direct consequence of the Doctors' Trial, is considered to be the first international code of ethics for research with human beings, and represented an attempt to prevent any repeat of the tragedy that occurred under Nazism. Nevertheless, the last 60 years have seen continued government-endorsed psychiatric abuse and illegitimate use of psychoactive drugs in countries such as the Soviet Union or China, and even in some with a long democratic tradition, such as the United States. Even today, the improper use of psychiatry on behalf of governments is seen to be occurring in numerous parts of the globe: religious repression in China, enforced hospitalization in Russia, administration of psychoactive drugs in immigrant detention centres in Australia, and the application of the death penalty by lethal injection and psychiatric participation in coercive interrogation at military prisons, in relation to the USA. The Declaration of Madrid in 1996 constituted the most recent attempt to eradicate, from the ethical point of view, these horrendous practices. Various strategies can be used to combat such abuses, though it is uncertain how effective they are in preventing them.     

Recent developments in brief psychotherapy

The clinical effectiveness and many of the therapeutic mechanisms of brief psychotherapy have been validated through research studies in recent years, as indicated in this review of developments in the psychodynamic and interpersonal brief therapies. However, the literature shows considerable variation in methods for establishing time limits and in exclusion criteria. In a major shift in therapeutic practice, interpersonal rather than intrapsychic concepts are used to identify the focus of therapy, and systematic techniques for defining the therapeutic focus have been developed. The therapeutic alliance and its relation to outcome also have received substantial attention. Trends in service delivery clearly indicate increasing emphasis on brief psychotherapy, which must be conceptualized as a specific modality, not just as long-term therapy compressed.     

Ethopharmacology: A historical perspective

Ethopharmacology can be defined as the study of behavioral and other effects of drugs through the use of ethological concepts. The study of drug effects on natural action patterns (motor acts and postures listed in ethograms), with respect to natural settings and to behavior as a whole (all identifiable behaviors occurring during the measurement) represents the basic concepts of ethopharmacology. Although pioneers drew attention to the potential of the ethological approach in pharmacology in the early 1960s, the number of publications utilizing this approach has steadily grown only since the mid-1970s. In the 1980s, modern technology, such as videorecorders, microcomputers and software, has been more widely applied in ethopharmacological experiments, greatly facilitating the observation and quantitative analysis of multiple data. Ethopharmacology is not "another" behavioral pharmacology, but an integral part of it. Rather, it represents one of the tools which can be useful (and sometimes even indispensable) in achieving a better understanding of the behavioral effects of drugs. It is to be hoped that it will be used in concert with other approaches in the future.     

Regressive and intensive methods of electroconvulsive therapy: a brief historical note

In the 1940s, regressive and intensive methods were developed to increase the therapeutic effects of electroconvulsive therapy. The diagnostic indications, methods of application, effectiveness, complications, and mortality of these techniques are briefly discussed here. An attempt is also made to evaluate the risks and benefits of these methods from a historical perspective.