Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind

by Benjamin Rush

Overview

Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind by Benjamin Rush stands as one of the earliest and most influential works in the history of psychiatry — a pioneering attempt to understand mental illness not as moral failing or spiritual corruption, but as a medical condition rooted in the human body and capable of treatment. First published in 1812, this landmark volume transformed the study of mental health in America and helped establish Rush as the nation's first true psychiatrist.

Written with both scientific curiosity and humane conviction, the book explores a wide range of conditions — from melancholy, mania, and derangement to phobias, delusions, and moral insanity — treating each with the analytical precision of a physician and the compassion of a reformer. Rush's approach was revolutionary for its time: he insisted that patients deserved care, not chains; that mental disorders arose from physical and environmental causes; and that healing must address both body and spirit.

Beyond its medical insights, Diseases of the Mind reflects the Enlightenment faith in progress and human dignity. Rush saw the physician's task as moral as well as scientific — to restore reason, comfort, and hope. His descriptions of early therapeutic methods, his reflections on the influence of emotion and habit, and his insistence on humane treatment anticipated the principles of modern psychology and psychiatry.

 More than a historical curiosity, Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind remains a cornerstone in the evolution of mental health care — a document of courage, intellect, and compassion from the dawn of medical science. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781779794130
Publisher:	Bonhopai Books
Publication date:	11/06/2025
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	188
File size:	645 KB

About the Author

 Benjamin Rush (1746–1813)   was an American physician, educator, and statesman whose influence reached from the birth of the Republic to the foundations of modern medicine. A signer of the Declaration of Independence and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Rush combined civic idealism with medical innovation. Often called "the father of American psychiatry," he was among the first to argue that mental illness stemmed from physical and emotional causes rather than sin or superstition. His Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind marked a turning point in Western medicine, advancing humane treatment for the mentally ill and establishing a scientific basis for psychological study. Beyond his medical work, Rush was a passionate advocate for education, social reform, and abolition. His belief in the dignity and improvability of the human mind shaped both his practice and his legacy. In every sense, he was a physician of the body, the soul, and the new American nation. 

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER IV. Of the Remedies for Hypochondriasis or mania. The remedies for this form of derangement divide themselves into two classes. I. Such as are intended to act directly upon the body ; and, II. Such as are intended to act indirectly upon the body, through the medium of the mind. 1. Before we proceed to administer the remedies that are indicated under our first head, it will be proper carefully to review the history of all the remote and exciting causes of this disease, and, when possible, to remove them. If this be impracticable, or if the disease continue from habit, after all its causes have been removed, recourse should be had to, 1. Bloodletting, if the pulse be tense, or full; or depressed, without either fulness, or tension. I have prescribed this remedy with success, and thereby in several instances suddenly prepared the way for its being cured in a few days by other medicines. I was led to use it by the following fact, communicated to me by the late Dr. Thomas Bond. A preacher among the Friends called upon him, to consult him in this state of madness. He said he was possessed of a devil, and that he felt him constantly in aches and pains in every part of his body. The Doctor felt his pulse, which he found to be full and tense. He advised him to sit down in his parlour, and persuaded him to let him open a vein in his arm. While the blood was flowing the patient cried out, " I am relieved, I felt the devil fly out of the orifice in my vein as soon as it was opened." From this time he recovered rapidly from his derangement. The advantages of bleeding are evinced still further by the relief obtained in this disease by the loss of blood from the haemorrhoidal vessels, andby other accidental haemorrhages. But, if experience had not thus established the ...