To the Delineation of the Notion of Self-Consciousness in Psychiatry: J.Ch. Reil’s Concept
https://doi.org/10.30629/2618-6667-2022-20-2-117-127
Abstract
The aim was to establish the rst authors of the notion and the conception of depersonalization in psychiatry, to analyze the criteria (signs) of normal and disordered consciousness in its “primary” concept. Method: the analysis of scientic works of G.E. Berrios, M. Sierra, A.A. Megrabjan, W. Maier-Gross, K. Haug, K. Oesterreich, P. Schilder, K. Jaspers, H. Dagonet, Th. Ribot, P. Janet, J. Reil and some other authors. Conclusion: although G.E. Berrios mentioned only two priority “schools” of the ΧΙΧ century developing phenomenology of consciousness and self-consciousness: French and English, we discovered that already in 1803 German physiologist, anatomist and psychiatrist J. Reil presented the original concept of self-consciousness (Selbstbewusstsein) and its deviations that in his psychopathological subtlety of elaboration did not yield to the originated much later concepts of H. Dagonet (1884, 1894) and K. Jaspers (1913). J. Reil highlighted the following properties of self-consciousness: 1) “belonging to oneself”; 2) connection of impressions in unity; 3) demarcation of “I and not I”. According to J. Reil, the nervous system compounds all parts of our body in unity in one main focal point: the brain, similarly the soul strives to processing of various impressions in unity. The state of consciousness is changeable, J. Reil marked its changeability according to ve signs: the loss of ability with necessary clarity for differentiation of subject and object; the predominance of the object with plunge into semi- darkness of the subject; the excessive lighting of the subject with corresponding shading of the external world; I-orientation in time and space; “consciousness of the past”, or continuity of “I”. Concerning the disorders of the state of self-consciousness J. Reil slightly modied these signs in: 1) the disorders of self-consciousness of “objectivity”; 2) the disorders of “subjectivity and own personality”, as a special kind of disorders of subjectivity J. Reil decribed the phenomena that later were designated by the term “depersonalization”; 3) the disorders of the soul and body unity; 4) disorders of continuity of self-consciousness (corresponding to the criterion of “I-identity” of K. Jaspers); 5) wrong reection of place and time.
About the Author
N. Yu. Pyatnitskiy
FSBSI “Mental Health Research Centre”
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Nikolay Yu. Pyatnitskiy, Cand. of Sci. (Med.)
Moscow
References
1. Berrios GE. The history of mental symptoms. Descriptive psychopathology since the nineteenth century. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; Sao Paolo: Cambridge University Press. 1996:229–259.
2. Jackson JH. The factors of insanities (1894). In: Selected Writings of John Hughlings Jackson. Edited by J. Taylor. Volume Two. London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited. 1932:411–421.
3. Cudworth R. The true intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein, All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated. London: Printed for Richard Royston, Bookseller to His Most Sacred Majesty, MDCLXXVIII [1678].
4. Locke J. (1690) An Essay concerning Human Understanding. In: The works of John Locke. Vol. I. Philosophical works. With a preliminary essay and notes, by J.A. St. John. London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854:112–541.
5. Lokk Dzhon [Locke John]. Opyt o chelovecheskom razumenii [An Essay concerning Human Understanding]. V kn.: Lokk Dzh. Sochinenija: v 3 t. (pod red. I.S. Narskogo, perevod s anglijskogo A.N. Savina). T. 1. Moskva: Mysl’. 1985. (In Russ.).
6. Wolo Christiano. Psychologia empirica Methodo Scientico Pertractato, qua ea, quae De Anima Humana Indubia Experientiae Fide constant, continentur et Ad Solidam Universae Philosophiae Practicae Ac Theologiae Naturalis Tractationem Via Sternitur. Francofurti & Lipsiae: Prostat in Ofcina Libraria Rengeriana, M DCC XXXII [1732].
7. Wolo Christiano. Psychologia rationalis Methodo Scientico Pertractato, qua ea, quae De Anima Humana Indubia Experientiae Fide innotescunt, per essentiam et naturam animae explicantur, ed Ad Intimiorem Naturae ejusque auctoris cognitionem profutura proponuntur. Editio novissima emendatior. Veronae: Typis Dionysii Ramanzini Bibliopolae Apud S. Thomam. Superiorum Permissu, MDCCXXXVII [1737].
8. Copleston FC. Philosophy in Russia. From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev. Kent, England: Search Press Ltd; Indiana, USA: University of Notre Dame Press. 1986.
9. Wolff Ch. Vernuenftige Gedanken von Gott, der Welt und der Seele der Menschen, auch alle Dingen ueberhaupt den Liebhabern der Wahrheit mitgeteilt. Halle: Zu nden in den Rengerischen Buchhandlung, 1720.
10. Aristotle. O dushe [On the soul]. Sochinenija: v 4 t. T. 1. Red. V.F. Asmus. Moskva: Mysl’. 1976:371–450. (In Russ.).
11. Villagran JM. Consciousness disorders in Schizophrenia: a Forgotten Land for Psychopathology. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy. 2003:3(2);209–234.
12. Plotin. Chetvertaja Jenneada [Fourth Ennead] (perevod s drevnegrecheskogo i posleslovie [translation from the ancient Greek] T.G. Sidasha). Sankt-Peterburg: Izdatel’stvo Olega Аbyshko. 2004. (In Russ.).
13. Descartes R. (1637) Discours de la Methode & Essais. Dans: Oevres de Descartes (Publiees par Charles Adam & Paul Tannery sur les Auspices du Minister de l’Instruction publique). Tome VI. Paris: Leopold Cerf, Imprimeur-Editeur. 1902.
14. Hume D. (1740) A treatise on human nature being an attempt to introduce the experimental method of reasoning into moral subjects and dialogues concerning natural religion. (Edited with preliminary dissertations und notes by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose). In two Volumes. Vol. I. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1874.
15. Kant I. Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht. Koenigsberg: bei Friedrich Nicolovius. 1798.
16. Taine H. Les elements et la formation de l’idee du moi. Revue philosophique de la France et de l’etranger. 1876. Janvier a Juine. Premier Annee. P. 289–299.
17. Unzer JA. Erste Gruende einer Physiologie der eigentlichen thierischen Natur thierischer Koerper. Leipzig: bey Weidmanns Erben und Reich. 1771.
18. Sechenov IM. (1863). Reeksy golovnogo mozga [Reexes of the brain]. V kn.: I.M. Sechenov. Izbrannye losofskie i psihologicheskie proizvedenija [Selected philosophical and psychological works] (pod redakciej, so vstupitel’noj stat’ej i primechanijami V.M. Kaganova). Moskva: OGIZ; Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo politicheskoj literatury [State Publishing House of Political Literature]. 1947:69–178. (In Russ.).
19. Jaspers K. Allgemeine Psychopathologie. Ein Leitfaden fuer Studierende, Aerzte und Psychologen. Berlin: Verlag von Julius Springer. 1913.
20. Dagonet H. Conscience et Alienation mentale. Annales Medico-psychologiques. Journal de l’Alienation mentale et de la Medicine legale des alienes. Sixieme Serie. Tome cinqueme. Trente-neuvieme annee. 1884:368–397.
21. Dagonet H. Conscience et Alienation mentale (suite et n). Annales Medico-psychologiques. Journal de l’Alienation mentale et de la Medicine legale des alienes. Sixieme Serie. Tome sixieme. Trente-neuvieme annee. 1884:19–32.
22. Dagonet H. Traite des Maladies Mentales. Avec la collaboration de J. Dagonet, G. Duhamel. Paris: Librairie J.-B. Bailliere et ls. 1894:75–87.
23. Ribot Th. The diseases of memory. An essay in the positive psychology. London: Kegan Paul, Trexch & Co. 1882.
24. Ribot Th. Les maladies de la personalite. Paris: Felix Alcan, Editeur. 1885.
25. Janet P. Les obsessions et la psychasthenie. I. Etudes Cliniques et experimentales sur les idees obsedantes, les impulsions, les manies mentales, la folie du doute, les tics, les agitations, les phobies, les delires du contact, les angoisses, les sentiments d’ incompletude, la neurasthenie, les modications du sentiment du reel, leur pathogenie et leur traitement. Paris: Felix Alcan, Editeurs. 1903.
26. Reil JCh. Rhapsodieen ueber die Anwendung der psychischen Curmethode. Halle: In den Curtschen Buchhandlung. 1803.
27. Griesinger W. Ueber psychische Reexactionen. (Mit einem Blick auf das Wesen der psychischen Krankheiten) (1843). In: Wilhelm Griesinger’s gesammelte Abhandlungen. Erster Band. Psychiatrische und Nervenpathologische Abhandlungen. Berlin: Verlag von August Hirschwald. 1872:3–45.
28. Birnbaum K. Geschichte der psychiatrischen Wissenschaft. In: Handbuch der Geisteskrankheiten (Herausgeb. von O. Bumke). Erster Band. Allgemeiner Teil I. Berlin: Verlag von Julius Springer. 1928:11–49.
29. Hoffmann Fr. (Medicina rationalis sistematica 1718– 1740, in 9 Baende). La Medicine raisonnee. Traduite par J.-J. Bruhier. Tome I. Contenant la Phisiologie, ou la Philosophie du corps humain, considere commee vivant, & sain c’est-a-dire, l’explication de tout ce qui entretient la vie, la santé, deduite, suivant la Methode des Geometres, de princioes simples, clairs, certains, puise dans la Physique, la Mechanique, l’Anatomie, pour server de base a la Pathologie & un Pratique vraiment Medicinale. A Paris: Chez Briasson, Libraire, MDCCXXXIX [1739].
30. Pyatnitskiy NYu. To the origins of the concept of reflex in medicine: Fr. Hoffmann’s doctrine of “nervism”. Psikhicheskoye zdorovie [Mental Health]. 2022;17(1):70–76. (In Russ.). doi: 10.25557/2074-014X.2022.01.70-76
31. Lipps Th. Leitfaden der Psychologie. Zweite, voellig umgearbeitete Auage. Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann. 1906.
32. Reil JCh. Ueber die Erkenntniss und Cur der Fieber. Allgemeine Fieberlehre. Erster Band. Zweite Auage. Halle: in der Curtschen Buchhandlung. 1799.
33. Reil JCh. Ueber die Erkenntniss und Cur der Fieber. Besondere Fieberlehre. Vierter Band. Nervenkrankheiten. Zweite vermehrte rechtsmaessige Auage. Halle: in der Curtschen Buchhandlung. 1805.
34. Snezhnevsky AV. Clinical Psychopathology. In: Handbook on Psychiatry in 2 Volumes (Ed. by A.V. Snezhnevsky). Vol I. Moscow: Medicine. 1983:16–96. (In Russ.).
35. Kraepelin E. Die Erscheinungsformen des Irreseins. Zeitschrift fuer die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie. 1920;Bd.LXII(62):1–29.
36. Esquirol JED. Des maladies mentales consideres sous les rapports medical, hygienique et medico-legal. Tome premier, Tome second. Paris: Chez J.-B. Baillere, Libraire de l’Academie royale de medicine. 1838.
37. Krishaber M. De la nevropathie cerebro-cardiaque. Paris: G. Masson, Editeur. 1873.
38. Dugas L. Un cas de depersonalization. Revue philosophique de la France et de l’etranger. 1898 (Janvier a Juin). Vingte-troisieme [23] annee. XLV:500– 507.
39. Amiel HF. Fragments d’un Journal intime. Precedes d’un etude par Edmond Scherer. Dans: Oeuvres posthumes de Henri-Federic Amiel. Deuxieme Edition. Tome I. Paris: Sandoz & Thuillier, Libraires-Editeurs, Neuchatel & Geneve Librairie General. 1884:1–236.
40. Amiel HF. Fragments d’un Journal intime. Precedes d’un etude par Edmond Scherer. Dans: Oeuvres posthumes de Henri-Federic Amiel. Deuxieme Edition. Tome II. Paris: Sandoz & Thuillier, Libraires-Editeurs, Neuchatel & Geneve Librairie General. 1884.
41. Pyatnitskiy NYu. The delineation of “depersonalization” phenomenon: M. Krishaber’s “cerebrocardial neuropathy” and self-consciousness in the concepts of H. Taine, Th. Ribot and W. James. Psikhicheskoye zdorovie [Mental Health]. 2021;2:57–69. (In Russ.). doi: 10.25557/2074-014X.2021.02.57-69
42. Wernicke C. Grundriss der Psychiatrie in klinischen Vorlesungen. Zweite revidierte Auage. Verlag von Georg Thieme, Leipzig, 1906.
43. Pyatnitskiy NYu. Phenomenology of delusion and overestimated ideas in psychopathology by Theodor Meynert and Carl Wenicke. Nezavisimyj psihiatricheskij zhurnal. 2008;4:27–35. (In Russ.).
44. Mauchart JD. Repertorium und Bibliothek fuer empirische Psychologie und verwandte Wissenschaften. Mit Unterstuezung mehrerer Gelehrten herausgegeben. Zweiter Band. Tuebingen: bei Jakob Friedrich Heerbrandt. 1799:54–58.
45. Gmelin Eberhard. Materialien fuer die Anthropologie. Erster Band. Tuebingen: in der Cottaischen Buchhandlung. 1791.
46. Sollier P. L’autoscopie interne. Revue de philosophie de la France et de l’etranger. 1903. Vingt-huitieme annee, Tome LV, janvier a juin: 1–41.
47. Pyatnitskiy NYu. To the delineation of the phenomenon of “Cenesthopathie”: from “cenesthesie” (coenaesthesis) to “cenesthesiopathie”. Psikhicheskoye zdorovie [Mental Health]. 2021;(3):42–52. (In Russ.). doi: 10.25557/2074-014X.2021.03.42-52
48. Aretaeus, The Cappadocian (I century). On the causes and symptoms of chronic disease. In: The extant works of Aretaeus, The Cappadocian. By Aretaeus (Edited and translated by Francis Adams) L.L.D. London: Printed for the Sydenham Society, 1856. Republication of the 1856 edition, Boston Milford House Inc. 1972:293–510.
49. Pyatnitskiy NYu. To the origins of the “unitary psychosis” doctrine: from Aereteus to V. Chiarugi. S.S. Korsakov Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry/ Zhurnal nevrologii i psihiatrii imeni S.S. Korsakova. 2018;5:111–119. (In Russ.). doi: 10.17116/jnevro201811851111
50. Cirkin SJu. Analiticheskaja psihopatologija. Izdanie vtoroe, ispravlennoe i dopolnennoe. [Analytical Psychopathology. Second edition, corrected and expanded] Moskva: Izdatel’stvo Binom. 2009. (In Russ.).
51. Megrabjan AA. Depersonalizacija [Depersonalization]. Erevan: Armjanskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo [Armenian state Publishing House]. 1962. (In Russ.).
52. Sierra M. Depersonalization. A New Look at a Neglected Syndrome. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; Sao Paolo; Deli: Cambridge University Press. 2009.
53. Oesterreich K. Die Entfremdung der Wahrnehmungswelt und die Depersonalisation in der Psychiatrie. Ein Beitrag zur Gefuehlspsychologie. Journal fuer Psychologie und Neurologie (Herausgegeb. von August Forel und Oskar Vogt). 1906;VII(6):253–276.
54. Schilder P. Selbstbewusstsein und Persoenlichkeitsbewusstsein. Eine Psychopathologische Studie. Berlin: Verlag von Julius Springer. 1914.
55. Mayer-Gross W. On depersonalization. British Journal of Medical Psychology. 1935;15:103–122.
56. Haug K. Depersonalisation und Verwandte Erscheinungen. In: Handbuch der Geisteskrankheiten (Herausgegeb. von O. Bumke). Ergaenzungsband. Erster Teil. Berlin Heidelberg GMBH: Springer Verlag. 1939:134–204.
57. Griesinger W. Die Pathologie und Therapie der psychischen Krankheiten fuer Aerzte und Studierende. Stuttgart: Verlag von Adolph Krabbe. 1845.
58. Binder DK, Shaller K, Clusmann H. The seminal Contributions of Johann-Christian Reil to anatomy, physiology and psychiatry. Neurosurgery. 2007;61(5):1091–1096. doi: 10.1227/01. neu.0000303205.15489.23
59. Pinel Ph. Traite medico-philosophique sur l’alienation mentale, ou la manie. Paris: Chez Richard, Caille et Ravier, Libraires, Paris, AN IX. (1800–1801). Reproduit l’edition originale, Collection Monumenta Medica. 1965.
Review
For citations:
Pyatnitskiy N.Yu. To the Delineation of the Notion of Self-Consciousness in Psychiatry: J.Ch. Reil’s Concept. Psychiatry (Moscow) (Psikhiatriya). 2022;20(2):117-127. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.30629/2618-6667-2022-20-2-117-127
Views:
672
Email this article 
