Arabic Perspectives on Classification of Psychotic Disorders: A Historical Overview and Comparison With Contemporary Classifications.

Abstract

This paper explores the perspectives of Arabic-scribing medical schools on the classification of psychotic disorders of the Middle Ages, the so-called "Islamic Golden Age". Through an in-depth analysis of seminal texts in Arabic medical literature, including works by renowned scholars such as Tabari, Razi, Avicenna, and others, this paper elucidates the historical development of psychiatric taxonomy in the Arabic medical tradition. By examining the representations of "junun" ("madness") or psychoses in these texts and comparing them with earlier European and current classifications, we aim to highlight the unique contributions of Arabic-scribing scholars to the field of clinical psychiatry. The Arabic taxonomy divides "junun" ("insanity") into three major categories of (1) permanent insanities ("al-junun al-thābet"), (2) symptomatic illnesses ("a'rāz tābea-tul amrāz"), and (3) reactive. Arabic medical schools consider "insanity" as a primary brain pathology albeit with multifactorial etiology-a concept formulated by early Greco-Roman medicine, developed by Muslim physicians, and re-invented by Griesinger in the 19th century-known as the "organic model" of mental illnesses.