John Brown (doctor)
John Brown (* 1735 in Berwickshire / Scotland; † October 7, 1788 in London) was a Scottish doctor in Edinburgh and London ( Kingdom of Great Britain).
Life
Brown had originally pursuing a theological education until 1759, but then turned on according to the moral-practical interests of his time a medical education and activity. Brown was a student of William Cullen, who first hired him as a private tutor. Already Cullen had extended his doctrine of nerve force to all diseases. This is the path pursued Brown further by reducing the contemporary neurophysiological findings in the nervous excitability and generalized for all diseases. Due to the exaggeration of the doctrine Cullens he fell out, however, with his former patrons. Its under the name of Brownianism become known doctrine reminds according to the principles of moral treatment at the desired balance between excitation and moderation of passions by reason.
Meyers encyclopedia from 1892 reported on the biography of Brown: "Brown (...) fell by unregulated life, excessive use of liquor and opium in severe distress, decreased after he emigrated to London in 1786 deeper and died ( October 7, 1788 ) there of apoplexy. " ( apoplexy, an old term for stroke or cerebral apoplexy )
Services
The Browns performance remains unaffected by the circumstances of his death. Apparently took his last well-kept lifestyle in accordance with his theory. The terms of sthenia and asthenia have been preserved in the psychiatric literature to date, see also the concept of neurasthenia made popular by George Miller Beard. - Klaus Dörner believes that the performance Browns Close to a different era, which he undoubtedly qualifies as Übergangsära to the romantic epoch, see also the reception of Brownianism. The Brownianism is therefore only related to psychiatry, because it is entitled to apply to the whole of medicine will be charged. This generality may also be considered as an early form of psychosomatic on the other hand.
Diseases are understood in the nosology of J. Brown as an expression of excessive or insufficient arousal. This in turn caused by a mismatch of external and internal stimuli and the excitability of the organism itself. Under stimulation conditions are understood as temperature, air Verhältnise, nutrients but also psychological affects. It shares the diseases in asthenic diseases and sthenic diseases. The former are the result of too low a stimulus condition and the latter the result of a strong state of excitement.
Work
- Elementa medicinae. Edinburgh 1780