Document Detail


The syndrome of accident proneness (Unfallneigung): why psychiatrists did not adopt and medicalize it.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20617632     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
In the World War I period, psychologists in Britain and Germany independently and simultaneously originated the idea of accident proneness (Unfallneigung). This distinctive syndrome of suffering a series of accidents was logically attractive for psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, especially as a pattern of unconsciously motivated deviant and self-destructive behaviour. Yet except for some mid-twentieth-century interest by psychosomatics specialists, psychiatrists did not systematically embrace the syndrome except occasionally as a symptom of other psychiatric conditions, thus showing that there were limits to the extent to which twentieth-century psychiatrists would medicalize patterns of behaviour.
Authors:
John C Burnham
Publication Detail:
Type:  Historical Article; Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  History of psychiatry     Volume:  19     ISSN:  0957-154X     ISO Abbreviation:  Hist Psychiatry     Publication Date:  2008 Sep 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-07-12     Completed Date:  2010-08-20     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9013819     Medline TA:  Hist Psychiatry     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  251-74     Citation Subset:  QIS    
Affiliation:
Department of History, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210-1367, USA. Burnham.2@osu.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Accident Prevention / history*
Accident Proneness*
Accidents, Occupational / history*
Great Britain
History, 20th Century
Humans
Psychiatry / history*
Psychoanalysis / history*
Wounds and Injuries / history*

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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