New York Wonderland

Historical Document 2

The term “Psychosis” was first introduced by E. Von Feuchtersleben, in his textbook “Principles of Medical Psychiatry” in 1845. The original text is currently very rare and expensive to find. In this document, M. Dominic Beer speaks on the history of the word Psychosis, and references to Feuchtersleben and his textbook when speaking about the original use of the word. He sums up Feuchtersleben definition of the word by stating that Psychosis has four categories: melancholia, mania, dementia, and idiocy. He then goes and describes what each of these terms individual referred to. Melancholia referring to depression, Mania to anxiety and delusions, Dementia to memory lost, and idiocy to abnormal motor behavior. Dominic afterwards speaks on different uses of the word from then to the present