LOS APORTES DE JOHANN CHRISTIAN REIL AL NACIMIENTO DE LA PSIQUIATRÍA

Abstract

The Rhapsodieen by Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813), edited in 1803, gave a crucial boost to care and treatment reforms for the mentally ill in Prussia. Reil, professor at the University of Halle, maintained that the causes of human illnesses cannot be distinguished as purely mental, chemical of physical, but as the result of an essential interaction among these three domains. Also, he formulated the basis of a new specialty, which he called psychiatry; he proposed the rights of people with mental illness, denounced the effects of the social stigma affecting them, defended the creation of specialized institutions which are adequate for them, stressed the responsibility of the government and the whole society for the citizens afflicted with these disorders, and proposed psychic cure as a fundamental treatment, both for mental and somatic illnesses, at a level equivalent to pharmacological treatments and surgery.