Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1163

JOHANN CHRISTIAN REIL (1759-1813) Rhapsodieen über die Anwendung der psychischen Kurmethode auf Geisteszerrüttungen. In der Curtschen Buchandlung 1818 2nd ed. 500 pp. 22.2 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 1162

First published in 1803, the present treatise is one of the earliest systematic works on psychotherapy. In it Reil sets forth principles and different techniques of therapy. Although he did not formulate a comprehensive theory of personality, he recognized the necessity of understanding the healthy personality before the pathological personality could be understood. He believed that mental illness is a psychological phenomenon which requires psychological methods of treatment and was convinced of the close relationship between mind and body. Even though he espoused many enlightened views, his therapeutic procedures included throwing patients into water and firing cannons in order to return them to rationality. Considered crude by today's standards, his psychotherapeutic methods were nevertheless the result of his deep knowledge of medicine and clinical psychiatry and his work is considered by some to represent the beginnings of modern psychotherapy.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 4923 (1st ed., 1803)