„Érzelmi nyavalyák” és „ész-tébolyodások”. A lélek betegségei az orvosi disszertációkban a 18–19. század fordulóján
“Emotional ailments” and “troubles of the mind”. Illnesses of the soul in medical dissertations on the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries

Summary/Abstract: Complex scientific ideas explaining the soul and its ailments, place, role, and effect on the body first formed in the fields of medicine, philosophy, anthropology, and pedagogy, then they became disciplines of their own by the second half of the 19th century. Interest in human sciences, including the scientific examination of the soul, started in Hungary during the second half of the 18th century. This is clearly discernible from the scientific discourse of the time, an important part of which were the dissertations written at the end of one’s university studies, which were published in print as well. The dissertations examined in this study present significant information regarding what was taught at universities about the nature and role of the soul, as well as its illnesses, and how this knowledge changed and improved during the examined time period. In other words, what new, empirical information about the illnesses of the soul and the mind got added to the texts besides the preexisting base of knowledge. Furthermore, as most of these dissertations were not original works, but compilations, the reception of new pieces of knowledge from Western Europe can also be examined in them. Present study focuses on the dissertations written and defended by the Hungarian students of the universities of Vienna and Nagyszombat/Buda/Pest between 1750 and 1830. Only a small number of dissertations about ailments of the soul were written at the examined universities during this period, but references or even entire chapters dedicated to these illnesses often appeared in dissertations focusing on different topics. To account for this, we have expanded the scope of examined texts to dissertations in which the illnesses of the soul appeared as causes or risk factors for other pathological conditions or said to be caused by these conditions. Dissertations focusing on medical practices and therapy should also be examined in relation to this topic, since during this period they already contained practical information regarding the treatment of the mentally ill.

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