November 22 , 1813

Johann Christian Reil (February 20, 1759, to November 22, 1813) is a notable figure in the history of psychology, because, according to one source:

In 1795, he founded the first German journal of physiology, Archiv für die Physiologie. Later, he would also be considered the founder of German psychiatry (the "German Pinel") and coined the term "psychiatry." In addition, he was a private confidante and physician to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Reil's ideas about mental illness pointed to:

.... the continuity of mind and body – an advanced concept for the time – [and]  required a discipline that was inseparable from medicine. As an inseparable and core medical discipline, he was opposed to the tendency of philosophers to turn mental illness into a form of philosophical psychology – remarkably prescient advice for its time. For Reil, the most important issue was the avoidance of stigmatization of patients who were hospitalized with mental illness. Reil regarded insanity as a disruption or fragmentationof the self. He distinguished three chief forces, the disruption of which could produce mental illness: self-consciousness, awareness and attention. Treatment was directed towards restoring these forces. 

One way Reil thought to restore these forces, his solution to the problem of crazy people who appear not to be aware of their immediate surroundings, was to produce the cry of a cat in pain. The doctor theorized this would bring the patient back to his surroundings, back to reality. There is no evidence he actually tried this, but his idea was to use a cat-piano. This Renaissance invention may never have been constructed. Nobody is sure about that.

His father was a Lutheran pastor in a small town. The historians credit Reil with "starting psychiatry in 1808. "












Halle an der Saale) was a German physician,physiologist, anatomist and psychiatrist. He coined the term psychiatry or, in German, Psychiatrie in 1808.[1][2]

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this guy invented the cat-piano as a way to shock the insane back to awareness -- the cat-piano was "an awakening therapeutic." dx in PAGE 6







cit-- and use to get fuller quote---https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0786468971



Encyclopedia of Asylum Therapeutics, 1750-1950s

By Mary De Young








Encyclopedia of Asylum Therapeutics, 1750-1950s


Author

Mary De Young


Edition

illustrated


Publisher

McFarland, 2015


[ Mary de Young, a professor of sociology at Grand Valley State University, lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.]