PsychEd Episode 48: History of Psychiatry with Dr. David Castle

Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode delves into the history of psychiatry with Dr David Castle, the inaugural Scientific Director of the Centre for Complex Interventions at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Prior to migrating to Canada in 2021, he spent 15 years as a Professor of Psychiatry at St Vincent’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne in Australia.

The learning objectives for this episode are as follows:

By the end of this episode, you should be able to…

1. Gain an appreciation for the historical context of the field of psychiatry
2. Understand how illness categories and treatments have been shaped by this history 
3. Compare and contrast how various past societies viewed and conceptualized mental illness
4. Apply lessons learned from historical practices to appraise current approaches

Guest: Dr David Castle

Hosts: Dr Alex Raben (Staff Psychiatrist), Gaurav Sharma (PGY4), Nikhita Singhal (PGY4), Andreea Chiorean (CC4)

Audio editing by: Dr Alex Raben

Show notes by: Dr Nikhita Singhal

Interview Content:

1:45 - Learning Objectives

3:25 - Ancient Times

14:42 - Middles Ages 

23:56 - Renaissance to Enlightenment

34:55 - 19th-20th Centuries

47:55 - 20th-21st Centuries

1:00:48 - Final Thoughts

Resources:

• Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry (Jeffrey A Lieberman)

References:

• The Emotional Foundations of Personality: A Neurobiological and Evolutionary Approach (Kenneth L Davis, Jaak Panksepp)
• Illustration of Bedlam (William Hogarth)
• Pinel, médecin en chef de la Salpêtrière en 1795 (Tony Robert-Fleury)
• Castle, D., Bassett, D., King, J., & Gleason, A. (2013). A primer of clinical psychiatry. Elsevier Health Sciences.
• de Leon J. DSM-5 and the research domain criteria: 100 years after Jaspers' General psychopathology. Am J Psychiatry. 2014 May;171(5):492-4. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.13091218
• Eisenberg L. Mindlessness and brainlessness in psychiatry. Br J Psychiatry. 1986 May;148:497-508. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.148.5.497
• Engel GL. The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science. 1977 Apr 8;196(4286):129-36. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.847460
• Kendell R, Jablensky A. Distinguishing between the validity and utility of psychiatric diagnoses. Am J Psychiatry. 2003 Jan;160(1):4-12. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.160.1.4
• Robins E, Guze SB. Establishment of diagnostic validity in psychiatric illness: its application to schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 1970 Jan;126(7):983-7. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.126.7.983
• Rosenhan DL. On being sane in insane places. Science. 1973 Jan 19;179(4070):250-8. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.179.4070.250
• Scheff TJ. The labelling theory of mental illness. Am Sociol Rev. 1974 Jun;39(3):444-52. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094300
• Szasz T. The myth of mental illness: 50 years later. The Psychiatrist. Cambridge University Press; 2011;35(5):179–182. https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.110.031310

CPA Note: The views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.

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