Galen's observations on diseases of the soul and the mind of men: researches on the knowledge of mental illnesses in Antiquity

Abstract

Galen of Pergamum (AD 129-c. 200/c. 216), one of the most important physicians of the Roman nobility during the Second Sophistic, recombined the teachings of great medical scientists and philosophers such as Hippocrates, Plato and Aristotle. With such an eclectic stance, he was not just able to obtain an independent position in medical and philosophical discourses of his time, but also to create an innovative paradigm to understand and cure diseases of the human soul. Thus, the physician could react to one of the great existential challenges to human life by analysing the ancient concept of the soul and examining how the immaterial mind was related and connected to the material body. Thus, Galen set up a catalogue of norms and measures to respond to mental dysfunctions inflicted by (1) bodily disorder, (2) emo-tional disequilibrium and (3) neurotic affections, so called fixed ideas.