Insanity in Ancient and Modern Life, with chapters on its prevention is a medical book written by the English physicist and practical worker in medicinal psychology Daniel Hack Tuke (1827-1895) in 1878. Tuke dedicated much of his time encouraging humanitarian treatment for the mental ill. His knowledge is summarized and clarified in many of his medical books, in which he often takes controversial and novel standpoints. The presented book discusses the causes of mental disorders in relation to the maturation of society and considers factors which can positively contribute to the prevention of psychiatric diseases.
Historical context
Being part of the movement dynamic psychotherapy in the later 19th century, Tuke is acknowledged to be one of the earliest authors to coin the term "Psychotherapeutics". He combines psychological insights similar to Freud's psychodynamic therapy with a medical and somatic approach that Tuke adopted from his studies of medicine. Living in a time in which mental illness is no longer regarded as the consequence of having committed a religious sin, a more biological basis and environmental foundation of psychiatric diseases was established. An especially pronounced insight of this viewpoint is that mental illness is caused by genetical factors as well as influenced by nurture and is therefore treatable and may be even preventable.
The breakthroughs of the 19th century
In the 17th and 18th centuries there was a gradually increasing focus on the brain itself and how brain injury affects behavioral displays like in the famous case of Phineas Gage. Additionally, a growing interest in reflexes facilitated the viewpoint that behavior is not necessarily self-generated but can be also environmentally caused. However, despite the huge medicinal and factual progress in the study of the brain and its influence on behavior, the new insights did not yet contribute to an improved treatment of psychiatric diseases and brain injuries. Although there was an increasing interest in mental processes and behavior, until the middle of the 19th century psychology as a scientific study and subject itself was largely disregarded and rather considered to be a branch of philosophy.
Irrevocably, this mindset turned enormously due to five scientific discoveries that enabled the development of modern neurophysiology and are still relevant for today's psychology. They were the discovery of the 1) cerebrospinal axis, 2) the growing impact of the reflex and its relation to mental functioning in studies by Marshall Hall (1790-1875), 3) the localization of brain functions such as the center of speech production (Broca's Area), 4) the discovery of the nerve cell by Camillo Golgi (1843-1926) and lastly, the 5) disentangling of the communication between neurons by Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934). All these findings consider a biological and physical basis by which behavior can be explained. This is also an opinion held by Tuke himself, as he not only waited for a proof of a physical basis for normal behavior but also as an explanation for what he terms "insanity".