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Ethological Foundations of Biological Psychiatry

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Book cover Integrative Biological Psychiatry

Abstract

In the above quotation the emotional states and behaviors inherent in the species of man are described. By studying the underlying brain mechanisms we strive to explain these conditions and, where relevant, cure them. My hypothesis in this contribution is that only an approach based on evolutionary biology and a comparison of species, i.e. on an ethological approach, can lead to a neurobiological explanation of the normal and pathological states mentioned by Hippocrates.

Men ought to know that from the brain and from the brain only arise our pleasures, joys, laughter, and jests as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs and tears…. It is the same thing which makes us mad or delirious, inspires us with dread and fear, whether by night or by day, brings sleeplessness, inopportune mistakes, aimless anxieties, absent mindedness and acts that are contrary to habit…

Hippocrates (c. 310–250 B.C.), The Sacred Disease

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  1. D. Ploog
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie, Kraepelinstraße 10, W-8000, München 40, Germany

    Hinderk M. Emrich

  2. Psychiatrische Klinik der Technischen Universität, Ismaninger Straße 22, W-8000, München 80, Germany

    Michael Wiegand

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Ploog, D. (1992). Ethological Foundations of Biological Psychiatry. In: Emrich, H.M., Wiegand, M. (eds) Integrative Biological Psychiatry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77168-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77168-2_1

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