There is probably no group of diseases about which there is such widespread popular ignorance or misinformation as those that affect the mind. People who would be ashamed not to have accurate information regarding the more important infectious diseases and more than general knowledge of the means by which they are transmitted speak of "insanity" as if there were a single disorder to which that name could properly be applied, and are without the slightest knowledge of the different forms of mental diseases, the periods of life in which they appear, their main characteristics and the means by which they terminate. Statistics relating even to those persons with mental disorders who are cared for in special institutions are usually quite unfamiliar to persons who have more than an ordinary amount of information regarding the prevalence of other diseases. Such a book as this will go far toward supplying the extraordinary lack of knowledge of conditions that have exceedingly important social and economic relations and from the study of which many lessons can be drawn that are applicable to human affairs far removed from those relating to patients in our hospitals for the insane.
Thomas W. Salmon.
Larchmont, New York,
January 11, 1922.
CONTENTS | ||
| PART I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. | ||
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | The Social and Economic Importance of Mental Diseases | [15] |
| II. | The Evolution of the Modern Hospital | [34] |
| III. | Legislation and Methods of Administration | [50] |
| IV. | The State Hospitals—Their Organization and Functions | [68] |
| V. | The Hospital Treatment of Mental Diseases | [84] |
| VI. | The Development of the Psychopathic Hospital | [104] |
| VII. | The Mental Hygiene Movement | [121] |
| VIII. | The Etiology of Mental Diseases | [138] |
| IX. | Immigration and Mental Diseases | [155] |
| X. | Mental Diseases and Criminal Responsibility | [169] |
| XI. | The Psychiatry of the War | [185] |
| XII. | Endocrinology and Psychiatry | [202] |
| XIII. | The Modern Progress of Psychiatry | [217] |
| XIV. | The Classification of Mental Diseases | [234] |
| PART II. THE PSYCHOSES | ||
| I. | The Traumatic Psychoses | [253] |
| II. | The Senile Psychoses | [266] |
| III. | The Psychoses with Cerebral Arteriosclerosis | [280] |
| IV. | General Paralysis | [293] |
| V. | The Psychoses with Cerebral Syphilis | [308] |
| VI. | The Psychoses with Huntington's Chorea, Brain Tumor and other Brain or Nervous Diseases | [323] |
| VII. | The Alcoholic Psychoses | [344] |
| VIII. | The Psychoses Due to Drugs and other Exogenous Toxins | [363] |
| IX. | The Psychoses with Pellagra | [378] |
| X. | The Psychoses with other Somatic Diseases | [392] |
| XI. | The Manic-Depressive Psychoses | [409] |
| XII. | Involution Melancholia | [427] |
| XIII. | Dementia Præcox | [440] |
| XIV. | Paranoia and the Paranoid Conditions | [461] |
| XV. | The Epileptic Psychoses | [475] |
| XVI. | The Psychoneuroses and Neuroses | [489] |
| XVII. | The Psychoses with Psychopathic Personality | [504] |
| XVIII. | The Psychoses with Mental Deficiency | [524] |
| Index | [537] | |
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
In presenting a preliminary consideration of the subject of mental diseases as a public health problem the author is actuated by no other motive than that of stimulating the undertaking, at some future time, of a comprehensive investigation and survey of an important field which has never been systematically and adequately studied in the past. Under existing circumstances the facts necessary for an intelligent discussion of this question are unfortunately not obtainable. We have, as will be shown, practically no information whatever as to the incidence of mental diseases in the community. Hospital statistics are still in such a chaotic state that we are not even in a position to speak authoritatively of that part of the population which is entirely within our supervision and control in institutions. Before any progress can be hoped for we must at least have at our disposal accurate data relative to the patients within the walls of our hospitals. This presupposes a uniform scheme of statistical reports based upon some common viewpoint. Adequate preparations for this undertaking have been made by the American Psychiatric Association and the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Every hospital for mental diseases in the country has been urged to cooperate in this movement. To show the necessity for more actively prosecuting this research has been one of the principal purposes of this book.