Periodical literature surveyed: July 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013
Antiquity (–500 CE)
Pearce JM (2013): The neurology of Aretaeus: Radix pedis neurologia. European Neurology 70: 106–112.
Pearce’s article sheds extra light on the detailed and empirical approach to medicine by the Greek-Roman physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia (practicing in the first and second century AD). It elucidates the description of the peripheral nerves and anatomy of the spinal roots, as Aretaeus had found them through studying wounded patients and soldiers.
Medieval (500–1450 CE)
Zargaran A, Zarshenas MM, Ahmadi SA, Vessal K (2013): Haly Abbas (949–982 AD). Journal of Neurology 260: 2196–2197.
A brief biographical article on this Persian physician who wrote a large medical encyclopedia that included chapters on diseases of the brain and spinal cord and also on neuropsychiatric disorders.
Renaissance (1450–1700 CE)
Tubbs RS, Cezayirli P, Blackerby WT, Shoja MM, Loukas M, Oakes WJ (2013): Govert Bidloo (1649–1713) and the first description of lipomyelomeningocele. Child’s Nervous System 29: 1219–1221.
This Dutch anatomist and royal physician has been credited as being the first to describe a case of lipomyelomeningocele, which predated the description currently known by more than 150 years.
Eighteenth Century
Pearce JM (2013): The Monro Bell controversy. Clinical Anatomy 26: 793–799.
This article takes a different look at the controversy between British physician Alexander Monro (1733–1817) and the anatomist Charles Bell (1774–1842) on the organization of the intraventricular foramen of the human brain.
Roth H, Smith RA, Mackay S (2013): Modern day relevance of William Hunter’s approach to teaching “The organ of hearing.” Clinical Anatomy 26: 551–555.
This brief article about the Scottish surgeon William Hunter (1718–1783) follows previous interpretations of how he described the functional anatomy of the human ear, while basing his descriptions on detailed preparations in his anatomical collection. The authors’ views on how Hunter’s work could be used in medical education today are original.
Nineteenth Century
Crommelynck I (2013): Doctor Chekhov’s doctors. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 236–244.
It explores the medical context of the Russian physician-writer and dramatic adviser Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), who also became a famous tuberculosis patient himself. The article analyzes both his writings as a medical student and as a young doctor, as well as the changes of his physician characters in the novels after his own prolonged illness.
Dieguez S (2013): Balzac’s Louis Lambert: Schizophrenia before Kraepelin and Bleuler. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 10–34.
This contribution offers a description of schizophrenia-type symptoms avant la lettre in the novel “Louis Lambert” (1832) by the French playwright and novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). While a critical attempt at retrograde diagnostics is noticeable in the text, it is unfortunately not very informed by recent literary scholarship.
Gomes MdaM, Cavalcanti JL, Engelhardt E (2013): French school of neurology in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, and its influence in Brazil. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 71: 818–821.
An article on the strong influence of French neurology on the development of early Brazilian neurology. Eminent French neurologists such as Joseph-Jules Déjerine (1849–1917), Pierre Marie (1853–1940), Joseph Babinski (1857–1932), and Georges Guillain (1876–1961) were mentors for the founders of Brazilian neurology: Antônio Austregesilo Rodrigues de Lima (1876–1960), Aloysio de Castro (1881–1959), Enjolras Vampré (1895–1938), and Deolindo Augusto de Nunes Couto (1902–1992).
Gomes MdaM, Engelhardt E (2013): Jean-Martin Charcot, father of modern neurology: An homage 120 years after his death. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 71: 815–817.
A short biographical article about the French doyen of modern neurology, Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), who also had a profound ability to draw and was fond of music and theatrical performances. He contributed the modern accounts of multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, peroneal muscular atrophy, and many other diseases.
Griessenauer CJ, Mortazavi MM, Loukas M, Shoja MM, Watanabe K, Tubbs RS (2013): Heinrich Bircher (1850–1923) and the first description of a surgical approach to the cavernous sinus. Child’s Nervous System 29: 1923–1925.
A historical case report and analysis on what was probably the first surgical treatment of a cavernous sinus infection in 1892 by this Swiss surgeon at the Aargau Hospital.
Grzybowski A, Pietrzak K (2013): Napoleon Cybulski (1854–1919). Journal of Neurology 260: 2942–2943.
Brief biography of this Polish physiologist who was the discoverer of adrenaline in 1895. His research on the bioelectrical activity of muscles would later evolve into the electromyography and nerve conduction study. He recorded the cortical electrical activity some 15 years before Hans Berger (1873–1941) would discover EEG.
Kissiov D, Dewall T, Hermann B (2013): The Ohio Hospital for Epileptics – The first “epilepsy colony” in America. Epilepsia 54: 1524–1534.
An intriguing article that examines the planning, the development, and the establishment of the first agricultural and curative colony for epilepsy patients in the United States in 1893.
Lefrère JJ, Rouillon F (2013): The Great Neurosis of Dr. Joseph Gerard. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 52–59.
This contribution analyzes the voluminous book that appeared in Paris, in 1889, by Dr. Joseph Gerard (1834–1898), who wrote Great Neurosis as a piece to promote public understanding of recent achievements in clinical neurology. Detailed, well introduced, and based on a rather unknown source, this is a strong contribution to the anthology.
Lorch MP (2013): Examining language functions: A reassessment of Bastian’s contribution to aphasia assessment. Brain 136: 2629–2637.
An extensive paper that examines the contribution of Queen Square physician Henry Charlton Bastian (1837–1915) in the field of aphasiology. Bastian developed a standardized clinical assessment for language disorders in his seminal Treatise on Aphasia (1898). Unfortunately, his work later became overshadowed by his eminent Queen Square colleague John Hughlings Jackson (1835–1911). In his early years, Bastian was also involved in the classification of nematode worms and became distinguished through his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 31.
Moulin T (2013): Doctors in Balzac’s work. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 225–235.
Largely based on secondary literature, this is a rather conventional and brief contribution that first introduces the life and work of this French playwright and novelist, before describing relevant publications that deal with the depiction and criticism of contemporary physicians, for example in La Peau de Chagrin (1831).
Pedroso JL, Barsottini OG, Goetz CG (2013): Babinski’s contributions to cerebellar symptomatology: Building the basis of the neurological examination. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 71: 973–975.
This short article describes the contribution of Joseph Babinski (1857–1932) to cerebellar research, including its symptomatology, as well as the clinical terms that he introduced — hypermetry, diadochokinesia, and asynergy — that are still used today.
Poirier J, Philippon J (2013): Theater in Professor Charcot’s galaxy. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 215–224.
It gives an interesting account of the feature of theatre as a source of interest for the French doyen of neurology, Jean-Martin Charcot, as well as a form of display in the arrangement of patient presentations at the Salpêtrière. However, these observations have already been made in Gelfand T (2000): Neurologist or psychiatrist? The public and private domains of Jean-Martin Charcot. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 36: 215–229.
Steinberg H, Wagner A (2013): Wilhelm Erb’s years in Leipzig (1880–1883) and their impact on the history of neurology. European Neurology 70: 267–275.
A historical vignette of the time of German neurologist Wilhelm Heinrich Erb (1840–1921) at the University of Leipzig, before he transitioned to the Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg in southwest Germany. While being the head of the clinical neurological department in Leipzig, Erb already worked on his eminent diagnostic tools.
Voskuil PH (2013): Epilepsy in Dostoevsky’s novels. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 195–214.
The great Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821–1881) was a well-known epilepsy patient. This article surveys the interpretations and nineteenth-century wording of seizure phenomena in five of his novels. This is a learned account by an author, who has already written several articles on neurological topics in Dostoevsky.
Voskuil PH (2013): Van Gogh’s disease in the light of his correspondence. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 116–125.
Using primary sources, Voskuil explores the medical history of Dutch-born impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) through remarks of medical signs of his disease in letter correspondence. While the attempt to retrograde diagnostics is not critically assessed, the article remains nicely written and well argued.
Walusinski O (2013): Hysteria in fin de siècle French novels. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 35–43.
This contribution looks at the sociopolitical interpretations of “hysteria” as representing the contemporary female condition. A particular focus is laid on the reception of Charcot’s work by French writers, for example, Octave Mirbeau (1848–1917) and Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880). Though brief, Walusinski finds many interesting new aspects.
Walusinski O (2013): Pioneering the concepts of stereognosis and polyradiculoneuritis: Octave Landry (1826–1865). European Neurology 70: 281–290.
An excellent biographical article on French physician Landry, whose concept of the physiology of sensation (1852) laid the foundation for the subsequent notions of proprioception (Charles Sherrington [1857–1952] in 1906) and stereognosis (Heinrich Hoffmann [1819–1891]). Landry described a case of Guillain-Barré syndrome 50 years before Georges Guillain (1876–1961), Jean-Alexandre Barré (1880–1967), and André Strohl (1887–1977). Unfortunately, he died at the young age of 39 years from cholera, which ironically was the subject of his thesis as an interne des hôpitaux.
Walusinski O, Honnorat J (2013): Augustin Morvan (1819–1897), a little-known rural physician and neurologist. Revue Neurologique (Paris) 169: 2–8.
Morvan practiced medicine in France in rural Brittany. In 1890, he described a syndrome of myokymia (“fibrillary chorea”), severe insomnia, and autonomic nervous system disturbances that now bears his name. Recently, the etiology of this syndrome was attributed to an autoantibody against voltage-gated potassium channels.
Watson CC, Griessenauer CJ, Loukas M, Blount JP, Tubbs RS (2013): William Watson Cheyne (1852–1932): A life in medicine and his innovative surgical treatment of congenital hydrocephalus. Child’s Nervous System 29: 1961–1965.
A biographical article of this British bacteriologist and surgeon, who was a collaborator of Joseph Lister (1827–1912) and pioneer in congenital hydrocephalus treatment.
Twentieth Century
Bogousslavsky J (2013): Marcel Proust’s fictional diseases and doctors. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 245–254.
Examines the portrayal of medicine in Marcel Proust (1875–1922), who was related to well-known physicians in his family. Particular areas covered are “chronic asthma,” “neurasthenia,” and “self-medication.” While the article is largely based on previous scholarship, it ties together the contemporary sociocultural criticisms of physicians.
Bogousslavsky J (2013): The Nadja case. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 44–51.
An analysis of French surrealist André Breton’s (1896–1966) “Nadja” (1926) with a specific description of a young woman, modeled after Léona Delcourt (1902–1941). Partially influenced by his experiences as medical student with Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski (1857–1932), Breton was attracted by her visible “poetic instability.”
Burkholder DB, Klaas JP, Kumar N, Boes CJ (2013): The origin of Woltman’s sign of myxoedema. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 20: 1204–1206.
An interesting article on the origin of Woltman’s sign — the slow relaxation of muscle when the tendon reflex was elicited in hypothyroidism. While the name of Henry Woltman (1889–1964), Mayo Clinic’s first neurologist, was ascribed to this sign, it has been observed by others as early as 1870s. Mayo trainee William Calvert Chaney (1888–1965) was the first to objectively measure this muscle stretch reflex and published it in 1924.
Eadie MJ (2013): James Taylor (1859–1946): Favourite disciple of Hughlings Jackson and William Gowers. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 43: 361–365.
Junior colleague and friend of the two great figures of early British neurology, Queen Square neurologist James Taylor has largely been forgotten today, perhaps being best remembered as the editor of Selected Writings of John Hughlings Jackson (1931).
Ganesh A, Stahnisch FW (2013): On the historical succession of vessel-based therapies in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. European Neurology 70: 48–58.
A review of vessel-based therapies attempted for multiple sclerosis (MS) in the past, including the pharmacological anticoagulation by Tracy Jackson Putnam (1894–1975) in the 1930s, followed by vasodilator drugs and vasopressor therapies since the 1940s. In 2009, the chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency theory and its “venoplasty” procedure stirred a controversy and to date has not been shown to be beneficial as an MS treatment.
Klaas JP, Burkholder DB, Singer W, Boes CJ (2013): Harry Lee Parker and paroxysmal dysarthria and ataxia. Neurology 80: 311–314.
This article explores Irish-born Mayo Clinic neurologist Parker’s (1894–1959) description of paroxysmal dysarthria and ataxia cases associated with MS in 1946.
Macchi V, Porzionato A, Stecco C, De Caro R (2013): Tullio Terni (1888–1946): The “column” of spinal cardiovascular regulation. Clinical Anatomy 26: 544–546.
A biography of this Italian anatomist who, among his many contributions, described “Terni’s column” — a longitudinal column of neurons from the first thoracic to second lumbar segments of the spinal cord that are involved in autonomic nervous activity.
Mecacci L (2013): Solomon V. Shereshevsky: The great Russian mnemonist. Cortex 49: 2260–2263.
A mysterious person with extraordinary memory was featured in eminent Russian neuropsychologist Aleksandr Luria’s (1902–1977) The Mind of a Mnemonist (1968). The article reveals his real identity, background, and acquaintance with Luria. This mnemonist had synesthesia that greatly aided in enhancing his memory capacity.
Nardi AE, Freire RC, Machado S, Silva AC, Crippa JA (2013): A hundred-years of Karl Jaspers’ General Psychopathology (Allgemeine Psychopathologie) — 1913–2013: A pivotal book in the history of psychiatry. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 71: 490–492.
The book authored by German psychiatrist and philosopher Jaspers (1883–1969) was considered the single most influential text in psychopathology and even today is still indispensable for clinical psychiatrists and other students of psychopathology.
Paciaroni M, Kilcline T (2013): Misidentifications in Pirandello’s plays and short stories. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 69–76.
Seeks to medicalize Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello’s (1876–1936) work by equating his intellectual interests with modern psychopathological phenomena. Based on rather insufficient contextualization, the authors claim that Pirandello received medical concepts from contemporaries, such as French psychologist Alfred Binet (1857–1911).
Sandrone S (2013): Norman Geschwind (1926–1984). Journal of Neurology 260: 3197–3198.
A brief biography of Geschwind, who is one of the founders of behavioral neurology and neuropsychology. He founded the Boston University Aphasia Research Center that was dedicated entirely to aphasia research. His 1965 paper “Disconnexion Syndromes in Animals and Man” published in the journal Brain was seminal in the field.
Silver JR, Weiner MF (2013): Sir Ludwig Guttmann: His neurology research and his role in the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries, 1939–1944. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 43: 270–277.
Guttmann (1899–1980) was a pioneer in spinal injuries. This article explores the first five years of his emigration from Germany in Oxford, where he researched the peripheral nerves, before moving to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1944 to begin his seminal work on spinal injuries. Guttmann seldom mentioned his times in Oxford, but the experience gained there may have contributed to his subsequent spinal research.
Stahnisch FW, Nakashima AS (2013): Theodore Brown Rasmussen (1910–2002). Journal of Neurology 260: 2694–2696.
A biographical article of this Canadian neurosurgeon who specialized in epilepsy surgery. He was trained under eminent Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield (1891–1976) and later succeeded Penfield as the director of the Montreal Neurological Institute. Rasmussen’s encephalitis was his eponymous disease.
Steimlé R (2013): Jean A. Sicard (1872–1929). Journal of Neurology 260: 1946–1947.
A short biography of this French neurologist who was known for his work in the treatment of neuropathic pain, and he introduced, together with his student Jacques Forestier (1890–1978), a contrast agent Lipiodol used for myelography. A syndrome of unilateral lesion of the last four cranial nerves — Collet-Sicard syndrome — was named after Frédéric Justin Collet (1870—1966) and him.
Steinberg H (2013): Oswald Bumke (1877–1950). Journal of Neurology 260: 2444–2445.
Bumke was an influential figure in German psychiatry, and he believed that psychiatry and neurology should form an integrated entity. He single-handedly edited an 11-volume Handbook of Mental Diseases (1928–1932), and, together with Otfrid Foerster (1873–1941), coedited a 17-volume Handbook of Neurology (1935–1937). In 1923, he was invited by the USSR government for a consultation after Lenin suffered a third stroke.
Tatu L, Bogousslavsky J (2013): Madness in Blaise Cendrars’ novels: Moravagine and company. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 1–9.
This contribution shows that Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961), a prominent Swiss-French author, was considerably influenced by contemporary neuropsychiatry. Through Cendrar’s participation in World War I and his personal experiences with issues of shell shock, he became interested in the borderland of neurological and psychiatric phenomena.
Teive HA, Zorzetto FP, Moro A, Munhoz RP, Filho PA, Novak EM (2013): Professor Abraham Akerman. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 71: 640–642.
A brief biography of Akerman (1908–1985), a Jewish-Brazilian neurologist who was born in Eastern Europe. He then trained in Paris and described the “Alajouanine-Akerman unstable ataxic hand” with his mentor Théophile Alajouanine (1890–1980).
Tensini F, Moro A, Munhoz RP, Silva TS, Teive HA (2013): Professor Elio Lugaresi’s contributions to neurology and sleep disorders. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 71: 558–561.
Lugaseri (b. 1952), a neurologist at the Italian University of Bologna, has contributed strongly to the field of sleep disorders. He, for example, identified hypnogenic paroxysmal dystonia in 1981, fatal familial insomnia in 1986, and agrypnia excitata in 2001.
Thematic
Capovilla G, Wolf P, Beccaria F, Avanzini G (2013): The history of the concept of epileptic encephalopathy. Epilepsia 54(Suppl. 8): 2–5.
An elucidating, though rather brief, article about the development of “epileptic encephalopathy” parallel to American neurologist Samuel West (b. 1863?). The contributions of various other neurologists to the amplification of the West syndrome are described, but many of these neurologists are insufficiently introduced.
Carota A, Calabrese P (2013): Alcoholism between fiction and reality. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 169–177.
This contribution seeks to explore the frequent awareness of medical and neurological problems of “alcoholism” in the media of literature, theater, and movies. It meanders between these genres without finding a solid focus. For a topic this large, the article is quite abstract and the historical examples not exposed in revealing detail.
Dieguez S (2013): Doubles everywhere: Literary contributions to the study of the bodily self. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 77–115.
This contribution takes up the figure of the “double” in accounts of self-identity in romantic, gothic, and fantastic literature, such as in E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822) or Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849). It explores a topic that — despite the cultural trope of schizophrenia — has surprisingly not received as much attention as it deserves.
Dieguez S, Annoni JM (2013): Stranger than fiction: Literary and clinical amnesia. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 137–168.
This contribution surveys “memory disorders” and “amnesia” in their literary representation. Based on the use of many examples, the authors refreshingly argue against common perceptions that fictional amnesia was scientifically “inaccurate.” Stranger than Fiction is rather positioned in a clinical than historical perspective.
Genton P, Gelisse P (2013): The history of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. Epilepsy & Behavior 28(Suppl. 1): S2–S7.
This commonest idiopathic epilepsy syndrome, as recounted by the authors, was discovered in Switzerland and France in the nineteenth century. It became further described in the 1950s in Germany and Uruguay, while the current terminology was coined in Denmark in 1975 and later somewhat rediscovered in North America in the 1980s.
Gomes MdaM, Engelhardt E (2013): Historical sketches of the beginnings of the academic “Mental and Nervous Diseases” in Brazil, and European influences. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 71: 562–565.
A brief article that discusses the parting of ways between neurology and psychiatry in Europe and in Brazil, including a timeline of the milestones of both fields in Brazil.
Haan J (2013): Protagonists with Parkinson’s disease. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 178–187.
This is a traditional piece of retrograde diagnostics that does not historicize the discussed examples; in fact, these are fairly recent ones such as American writers John Updike (1932–2009), Jonathan Franzen (b. 1955), and Sue Miller (b. 1943). It is barely historically informative and rather ignores the available secondary literature.
Ladino LD, Hunter G, Téllez-Zenteno JF (2013): Art and epilepsy surgery. Epilepsy & Behavior 29: 82–89.
An intriguing article in which numerous artistic paintings about the history of epilepsy surgery are included from around the world (Europe, Turkey, and the Inca Empire). An early-twelfth-century painting shows a patient enduring trepanation and cauterization.
Livramento JA, Machado LdosR (2013): The history of cerebrospinal fluid analysis in Brazil. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 71: 649–652.
After the first lumbar puncture was performed by Heinrich Quincke (1842–1922) in Germany in 1891, it was soon also applied in Rio de Janeiro in 1897. This article provides an overview of the cerebrospinal fluid studies in various centers in Brazil.
Piechowski-Jozwiak B, Bogousslavsky J (2013): Psychopathic characters in fiction. Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience 31: 60–68.
This is another problematic contribution to the same anthology. The concept of “psychopathy” is extended to early modern cases, and examples are used to prove authors’ preconceived convictions, spanning from Geoffrey Chaucer’s (1343–1400) Pardoner’s Tale to Jonathan Demme’s (b. 1944) Silence of the Lambs 600 years later.
Shorvon S (2013): The historical evolution of, and the paradigms shifts in, the therapy of convulsive status epilepticus over the past 150 years. Epilepsia 54(Suppl. 6): 64–67.
Details the treatment of status epilepticus from the use of bromides in the 1860s, barbiturates since the 1920s, intravenous phenytoin in 1958, to the current use of newer antiepileptic agents and innovative principles and approaches to therapy.
ThesesFootnote1
Bagwell M (2013): Does Riverside Mental Health Court Reduce Re-Arrest Among Mentally Ill Offenders? Alliant International University, San Diego, California, PhD Dissertation.
With 108 pages of length, many research universities would only have given a Master’s degree for a dissertation of this scope. It is an exploration of the title’s question regarding the emergence of Mental Health Courts as a process of the “criminalization of the mentally ill,” while primarily the Riverside Mental Health Court in California has been studied. The empirical work gives some new answers as to the time periods of legal re-arrest, but the thesis is insufficiently contextualized with scholarly literature. Forms of evidence other than institutional records have hardly been used.
Brierly M (2013): The Nuances of Accuracy: The Social Practices of Medical Illustrators and their Pharmaceutical Sponsors. University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, PhD Dissertation.
This doctoral thesis looks from a science and technology studies perspective at the particular contributions of the first medical illustrators in North America in the wake of German-Jewish émigré physician and designer Fritz Kahn (1888–1968) in New York City and Baltimore. It analyzes the first attempts to form a discipline of medical and neuroscientific illustrators and surveys the contributions (financial and other resources) by the pharmaceutical industry that since the Second World War saw the great potential of illustrations for their advertisement campaigns.
Cornel T (2013): Funktionell-Magnetische Resonanz-Phrenologie. Technischen Universität Berlin Berlin, Germany, MA Dissertation.
This dissertation has researched the gender biases in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and other neuroimaging techniques, which have been placed in their wider historical context. Particularly, the organology of German-Austrian neuroanatomist Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828) and his postulate of differences between male and female brains are here further explored. As an English excerpt from Cornel’s MA, the following article entitled “Matters of Sex and Gender in F. J. Gall’s Organology: A Primary Approach” can be found in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences (2014) 23: 377–394.
Duncan WT (2012): The Culture of Mental Health in a Changing Oaxaca. University of California, San Diego, California, PhD Dissertation.
As one of the few yet important recent English dissertations on the history of psychiatry in Latin America, Duncan’s historical-anthropological thesis is based on 18 months of research in Mexico. She pursued interviews of both patients and mental health practitioners and analyzed institutional documents, educational publications, public media reports, as well as advertisements. In her theoretical framework, she discusses the globalized approach to mental health as an “emotive institution,” which is nevertheless broken down and adjusted to institutional, local, and cultural settings.
Geil A (2013): Plastic Recognition: The Politics and Aesthetics of Facial Representation from Silent Cinema to Cognitive Neuroscience. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, PhD Dissertation.
This dissertation focuses on the subject of plastic recognition, while tracing and analyzing the genealogy of the human face in cinematographic as well as scientific settings. It contends that the face is the primary site for human psychological recognition processes, which cuts across a range of aesthetic, political, philosophical, and scientific thought. Several studies in contemporary neuroscience that have used filmic identification approaches are also examined as to their representation of the human face in terms of a neurophysiological basis for the recognition of empathy.
Parsons A (2013): Re-Institutionalizing America: The Politics of Mental Health and Incarceration, 1945–1985. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, PhD Dissertation.
This is a detailed and well-analyzed thesis, which takes the existing view of deinstitutionalization as a federal and hence programmatic development into question. It follows the bottom-up processes on state and local levels, through examining many local cases, and shows that the politics of mental health and imprisonment often intersected on these fundamental terrains. This emanates, for example, from the finding that many former mental hospitals even converted themselves into prisons in the 1980s — a newly identified national phenomenon particularly in the United States.
Robertson LA (2013): The Embodied Imagination: British Romantic Cognitive Science. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, PhD Dissertation.
This PhD dissertation is based on a large research project that explores Romantic theories of mind by natural philosophers and poets. The well-researched thesis reviews the commonly received notion of British empiricist theories of mind as “passive” — particularly vis-à-vis German Naturphilosophie — and rightly shows that the Romantic theories held by early British cognitive scientists avant la lettre allow for a revised understanding of the psychological works by William Wordsworth (1770–1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) among other scholars.
Schmidt BM (2013): Paying Attention: Imagining and Measuring a Psychological Subject in American Culture, 1886–1960. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, PhD Dissertation.
Schmidt’s thesis Paying Attention is an intriguing piece of work, which looks at the development of the concept and the experimental methodological approaches of studying “attention” in the United States between 1886 and 1960. It thus follows a longer research tradition, with the American pupils of the German experimentalist Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), into the beginnings and explores how a new community of experts around German-American psychologist Hugo Muensterberg’s (1863–1916) school developed that cultivated, controlled and measured psychological attention.
Stinson CE (2013): Cognitive Mechanisms and Computational Models: Explanation in Cognitive Neuroscience in Freud and Augustine: Psychotherapy as an Art of Grace. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PhD Dissertation.
This work explores the development of cognitive neuroscience as an integrative field between neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Philosophically oriented, the author criticizes many of the existing reductionist models of cognitive processes and argues that particularly connectionist models should be more aligned with generic brain mechanisms to allow for the resolution of several existing philosophical puzzles. Also discussed is how the perception of scientific models in terms of generic mechanisms could allow for a unified account of the decisions made in neuroscience modeling.
Vasholz P, Jr (2011): Free Will, Neuroscience, and Political Philosophy. Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, PhD Dissertation.
Vasholz’ dissertation analyzes the problem of free will in the historical context of modern neuroscientific endeavors. It especially dwells on the growing knowledge in neuroscience and cognitive psychology over the recent decades. The impact that new scientific knowledge exerted on the wider philosophical questions of free will is centrally taken into account. By extension, Vasholz also ponders on its moral, political, legal, and religious implications, when, for example, the neurodynamic notion by American psychosurgeon Walter Freeman (1895–1972) is taken into account.
Notes
1 With respect to the graduate theses now included in NeurHistAlert, please note that the electronically accessible dissertation databanks (e.g., ProQuest® and Historical Abstracts®) often receive theses relatively late (ca. 1 year after the academic defenses were being held) due to authors’ revisions and changes. In their working rhythm, the databank publishers also need further time for cataloguing, so that for theses an “extended survey period” applies. We think, however, that the inclusion of graduate theses still provides good service to the history of neuroscience community at large.