Author : C. Macfie Campbell
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331114499
Total Pages : 24 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (144 download)
Book Synopsis The Mental Health of the Community and the Work of the Psychiatric Dispensary (Classic Reprint) by : C. Macfie Campbell
Download or read book The Mental Health of the Community and the Work of the Psychiatric Dispensary (Classic Reprint) written by C. Macfie Campbell and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-10 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Mental Health of the Community and the Work of the Psychiatric Dispensary Unlike internal medicine, psychiatry cannot limit itself to the failure of single organs or groups of organs to deal with their problems; it has to deal with the maladjustments of the personality as a whole. Psychiatry may therefore be considered as personal medicine, as opposed to impersonal medicine; while in other departments the personality may be ignored, although not always with impunity, in the mental clinic the personality is the organic unit with which we work. It is true that disorders of the individual organs and of groups of organs may cause modifications of the personality. The personality is not something outside of and apart from the constituent organs of the body; it is the total activity of these organs more adequately conceived. The study of the personality and its disorders involves the study of all the bodily organs, but in a more complete setting than is necessary in internal medicine. In the mental clinic, therefore, we deal with patients whose symptoms require for their understanding a study of the personality and of its problems. Mental disorders are not disorders whose symptoms necessarily are mental, but whose roots are mental, that is whose roots cannot be understood without studying the patient in his complete human relations. The symptoms may be insomnia, or headache, or vomiting; they may consist of a paralysis or a tremor; they may be limited to an apparent blindness or deafness or dumbness; and yet the disorder may be a mental disorder because its roots lie in the difficulty the personality has in its adjustment to the situation. The personality, in the face of difficulties, may find refuge in phantasies, deliria or hallucinations, but also in aches and pains and palsies, and the latter may be as truly evidence of mental disorder as the former. Symptoms such as paralysis or blindness may be the signal of a complex human difficulty while the individual organs are sound; on the other hand changes of personality, moods, hallucinations and delusions may be the sign of the disorder of some individual organ or group of organs. The organs involved may be the central nervous system, the glands which are at the very basis of the emotional life, or some other organ such as the stomach, or lungs. Where the personality is involved in this secondary way the mental symptoms are merely symptomatic of disorders, the study and treatment of which can be carried on along the narrower lines of internal medicine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
