For history buffs.

I receive newsletters from bphope.com (the website associated with Bp Magazine). There was a link to an article "The History of Bipolar: Through the Ages - It's Been There". I found it quite interesting, so thought I'd share it. It's a 2-part article, with a link the second part at the bottom of the first. It's maybe a 10 minute or less read, still concise, but not too concise. Here's the link:

The History of Bipolar: Through the Ages—It's Been There | bpHope.com

Obviously, there's still a lot not covered in the article above. For just one example, the history of bipolar stigma. It was only mentioned briefly how some people with bipolar disorder were treated during periods hundreds of years ago. This, alone, could be the makings of more than one long book.

Possible trigger:

Even the topic of eugenics (a potential triggering topic) is a big one. For example, see the article Psychiatry and the dark side: eugenics, Nazi and Soviet psychiatry Eugenics was not solely explored in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, at that time.

[*Beth*]

The articles sound fascinating. I have bookmarked them with the intention of reading them tonight. Thank you.

[Moose72]

Yikes! I'll have to read the articles tomorrow.

[Nammu]

A brief but interesting article. I liked the attention to self-care. I consider that an important step in stabilizing.

[*Beth*]

So far I've read Psychiatry and the Dark Side. I was raised in a Jewish family, in general the info in the article wasn't new to me - But the extent to which people with MI were systematically targeted was horrifying to learn.


What shocks me is the number of doctors who participated in the exterminations (or forced sterilizations). As the article pointed out, however, Nazi Germany was certainly not the only governmental force to carry out such horrors.

[*Beth*]

I read the history of bipolar article and found it quite fascinating. We owe a lot to Aretaeus of Cappadocia.

It's interesting to me that lithium was being used centuries ago, even if it was used in a primitive manner.

In some ways I agree with Kay Redfield-Jamison regarding the use of the term manic-depression as opposed to bipolar disorder.

I also did not know that mixed states were recognized so far back in history; I thought that mixed states was a relatively new term.

Thanks for sharing the article, BirdDancer. It was a very interesting read!

The euthanization definitely reminds me of my school field trips to Salem, MA where they discussed how people were murdered on suspicion of "witchcraft." And they tried all sorts of "treatments." But sadly, this mentality still exists today in places like some areas of Africa where albino people are killed for "magic" reasons. (Just an example.) It's sad that we haven't moved on from this mentality of killing people simply because they are different. (There's a whole wikipedia page dedicated to this.)

Good historical article, nonetheless.

I confess that I hadn't even been aware of the sterilizations and exterminations of the mentally ill during WW2, until I saw the German film "Never Look Away". It was only a side story in the movie, but an eye opener.

bluebicyle, it is sort of like the witchcraft trials. I know that people with epilepsy were also targeted.

BethRags, when I was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder, that psychiatrist referred to it as manic depression, a term I had also been unfamiliar with at the time. My knowledge about our disorder has increased incredibly since then. I remember as a teen, I suspected I had some mental illness, but wondered if I had schizophrenia - an illness I had been aware of. I also agree with you and Redfield-Jamison about the term manic depression. It seems to fit better even for mixed states.