# kb

id: history-of-political-thought-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_political_thought-6.md
category: reference
title: History of political thought
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_political_thought
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:11.308994+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-political-thought-20260505-0
summary:
An Irish member of the British parliament, Edmund Burke is credited with the creation of conservative thought. Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France is the most popular of his writings where he denounced the French Revolution, although he supported the American Revolution. An exponent of liberal conservatism, French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville is known for his works Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution. A German political theorist of the Conservative Revolution movement, Carl Schmitt developed the concepts of the friend/enemy distinction, the state of exception, and political theology. Though his most influential books were written in the 1920s, he continued to write prolifically until his death (in academic quasi-exile) in 1985. He heavily influenced 20th-century political philosophy. Leo Strauss famously rejected modernity, mostly on the grounds of what he perceived to be modern political philosophy's excessive self-sufficiency of reason and flawed philosophical grounds for moral and political normativity. He argued instead that we should return to pre-modern thinkers for answers to contemporary issues. His philosophy was influential on the formation of neoconservatism, and a number of his students later were members of the Bush administration. === Intersectionality === Colonialism and racism were important issues that


id: history-of-political-thought-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_political_thought-7.md
category: reference
title: History of political thought
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_political_thought
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:11.308994+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-political-thought-20260505-0
summary:
A pair of overlapping political perspectives arising toward the end of the 20th century are republicanism (or neo- or civic-republicanism) and the capability approach. The resurgent republican movement aims to provide an alternative definition of liberty from Isaiah Berlin's positive and negative forms of liberty, namely "liberty as non-domination." Unlike the American liberal movement which understands liberty as "non-interference", "non-domination" entails individuals not being subject to the arbitrary will of any other person. To a republican the mere status as a slave, regardless of how that slave is treated, is objectionable. Prominent republicans include historian Quentin Skinner, jurist Cass Sunstein, and political philosopher Philip Pettit. The capability approach, pioneered by economists Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen and further developed by legal scholar Martha Nussbaum, understands freedom under allied lines: the real-world ability to act. Both the capability approach and republicanism treat choice as something which must be resourced. In other words, it is not enough to be legally able to do something, but to have the real option of doing it. === Social liberalism === In Anglo-American academic political philosophy, the publication of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice in 1971 is considered a milestone. Rawls used a thought


id: history-of-printing-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-0.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
Printing emerged as early as the 4th millennium BCE in the form of cylinder seals used by the Proto-Elamite and Sumerian civilizations to certify documents written on clay tablets. Other early forms include block seals, hammered coinage, pottery imprints, and cloth printing. Initially a method of printing patterns on cloth such as silk, woodblock printing for texts on paper originated in Tang China by the 7th century, to the spread of book production and woodblock printing in other parts of Asia such as Korea and Japan. The Chinese Buddhist Diamond Sutra, printed by woodblock on 11 May 868, is the earliest known printed book with a precise publishing date. Movable type was invented in China during the 11th century by the Song dynasty artisan Bi Sheng, but it received limited use compared to woodblock printing. However, the use of copper movable types was documented in a Song-era book from 1193, and the earliest printed paper money using movable metal type to print the identifying codes were made in 1161. The technology also spread outside China, with the oldest extant printed book using metal movable type being the Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377 during the Goryeo era. Woodblock printing was


id: history-of-printing-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-1.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
== Woodblock printing == Woodblock printing, known as xylography today, was the first method of printing applied to a paper medium. It became widely used throughout East Asia both as a method for printing on textiles and later, under the influence of Buddhism, on paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to the Han dynasty (before 220 CE). Ukiyo-e is the best known type of Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique on paper are covered by the term woodcut, except for the block books produced mainly in the 15th century. === Legendary origins === According to the Book of the Southern Qi, in the 480s, a man named Gong Xuanyi (龔玄宜) styled himself Gong the Sage and "said that a supernatural being had given him a 'jade seal jade block writing', which did not require a brush: one blew on the paper and characters formed." He then used his powers to mystify a local governor. Eventually he was dealt with by the governor's successor, who presumably executed Gong. Timothy Hugh Barrett postulates that Gong's magical jade block was actually a printing device, and Gong was one of the


id: history-of-printing-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-2.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
Carvers tended to congregate in centers of book production. By the mid-thirteenth century, thus, they worked in at least ninety-one prefectures in south China, but mainly in Hangzhou, Jianyang in northern Fujian, and Chengdu in Sichuan. In the Jin and Yuan dynasties, the centers of production were Pingyang prefecture in southern Shanxi Province and, once again for southeast China, Hangzhou and Jianyang. By the late Ming, the lower Yangzi delta, mainly Suzhou and Nanjing, would dominate along with Jianyang. By the early seventeenth century, carvers would also have found their way to provinces that, in the Song and Yuan, had produced only a few books (e.g., Hunan, Shaanxi, and Guangdong) but had recently started to print a fair number of imprints for the book market. In 989 Seongjong of Goryeo sent the monk Yeoga to request from the Song a copy of the complete Buddhist canon. The request was granted in 991 when Seongjong's official Han Eongong visited the Song court. In 1011, Hyeonjong of Goryeo issued the carving of their own set of the Buddhist canon, which would come to be known as the Goryeo Daejanggyeong. The project was suspended in 1031 after Heyongjong's death, but work resumed in


id: history-of-printing-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-3.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
The emperor went to the Directorate of Education to inspect the Publications Office. He asked Xing Bing how many woodblocks were kept there. Bing replied, "At the start of our dynasty, there were fewer than four thousand. Today, there are more than one hundred thousand. The classics and histories, together with standard commentaries, are all fully represented. When I was young and devoted myself to learning, there were only one or two scholars in every hundred who possessed copies of all the classics and commentaries. There was no way to copy so many works. Today, printed editions of these works are abundant, and officials and commoners alike have them in their homes. Scholars are fortunate indeed to have been born in such an era as ours! In 1076, the 39-year old Su Shi remarked upon the unforeseen effect an abundance of books had on examination candidates: I can recall meeting older scholars, long ago, who said that when they were young they had a hard time getting their hands on a copy of Shiji or Han shu. If they were lucky enough to get one, they thought nothing of copying the entire text out by hand, so they could recite


id: history-of-printing-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-4.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
=== Central Asia and Iran === Printing started appearing further west after its invention in China. The Uyghurs used wooden movable type by the 12th-13th centuries. In 1908, more than a thousand pieces of Uyghur type made of wood, engraved in Sogdian script, were discovered in Dunhuang. To date no manuscripts or fragments using Uyghur movable type have been identified, but traces of ink on the movable type have been found, confirming their use. The Uyghurs also made use of woodblock printing by the 14th century. Printed texts discovered in Turfan dating to around 1300 contained multiple languages such as Sogdian, Sanskrit, Uyghur, and Chinese. Some of them had titles and page numbers in Chinese which suggests that they were produced by Chinese craftsmen. Fragments of Buddhist texts were printed in both Uyghur and Chinese while bearing a red Chinese seal. A Mongolian calendar dated to 1324 with printed Uyghur text was discovered in Turfan. It is speculated that printing was spread further west by Uyghurs under the Mongol Empire. A large number of Uyghurs were recruited by the Mongol army and Uyghur culture played an important role in the empire. After the Mongols incorporated Persia under their dominion, woodblock


id: history-of-printing-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-5.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
Woodblock printing was used for textile patterns in Europe by the mid-14th century and for images on sheets by the end of the century. Block prints were produced in southern Germany and Venice and across central Europe between 1400 and 1450. They were all religious in nature and most of them are undated, but they are believed to have been produced in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. They were printed as outlines and filled in with color manually by hand or stencil. Block books appeared in Germany c. 1400. There is no conclusive evidence that Chinese printing technology spread to Europe. However a number of authors have advanced theories in favor of a Chinese origin for European printing based on early references and circumstantial evidence. Tsien suggests that woodblock printing may have spread from China to Europe due to communications during the Mongol Empire era and based on similarities between blockprints in both areas. Tsien suggests that European missionaries to China during the 14th century could have borrowed the practice of creating prints to be colored manually later on, which had been prevalent in China for a long time with Buddhist prints. The block books of Europe were


id: history-of-printing-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-6.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
=== Wooden movable type === Bi Sheng also developed wooden movable type, but it was abandoned in favor of ceramic types due to the presence of wood grains and the unevenness of the wooden type after being soaked in ink. However wooden movable type had evidently reached the Tangut Western Xia to the west by the 12th century. There, the Tanguts printed the Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union, a 449-page text considered to be the earliest extant example of a text printed using the wooden movable type. The Auspicious Tantra texts were found in the ruins of the Baisigou Square Pagoda in the Helan Mountains, Ningxia. They feature traits of movable type texts such as identical length bar lines, some characters printed upside down, different shades of ink, and interlaced lines. Another Tangut text known as the Avatamsaka Sutra contains descriptions of the merits of wooden movable type such as a "vow to carve individual characters", "those engaged in typesetting are virtuous", and "those engaged in carving characters and printing are intelligent and can expect to have their wishes fulfilled". The text shows traits of movable type such as correcting mistakes by directly overlaying incorrect characters with the correct ones.


id: history-of-printing-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-7.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
=== China === During the Ming and Qing dynasties, both wooden and metal movable types were quite common, but the preferred printing method remained woodblock. During the Qing dynasty, the printing house inside the Forbidden City used movable copper type to print the Gujin tushu jicheng. The metal fonts were melted down for coins at the start of the Qianlong Emperor's reign in 1735. Later another set of movable type was created to print the Siku quanshu, but the material chosen was wood rather than metal to cut down on costs. In one case an entire set of wooden type numbering 250,000 pieces was used only for printing the emperor's rare book collection, and then used for firewood. Despite official patronage of movable type prints, the Forbidden City's printing house never used it for more than 10 percent of all printed materials while 90 percent of printed books used the older woodblock technology. Woodblocks remained the dominant printing method in China until the introduction of lithography in the late 19th century. ==== Korea ==== Metal movable type received most use among the East Asian countries in Korea where it was most widespread, but it still never replaced woodblock printing. The


id: history-of-printing-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-8.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
==== Movable type vs. woodblock printing ==== Traditionally it has been assumed that the prevalence of woodblock printing in East Asia as a result of Chinese characters led to the stagnation of printing culture and enterprise in that region. S. H. Steinberg describes woodblock printing in his Five Hundred Years of Printing as having "outlived their usefulness" and their printed material as "cheap tracts for the half-literate, ... which anyway had to be very brief because of the laborious process of cutting the letters." John Man's The Gutenberg Revolution makes a similar case: "wood-blocks were even more demanding than manuscript pages to make, and they wore out and broke, and then you had to carve another one – a whole page at a time." Recent commentaries on printing in China using contemporary European observers with first hand knowledge complicate the traditional narrative. T. H. Barrett points out that only Europeans who had never seen Chinese woodblock printing in action tended to dismiss it, perhaps due to the almost instantaneous arrival of both xylography and movable type in Europe. The early Jesuit missionaries of late 16th-century China, for instance, had a similar distaste for wood based printing for very different reasons.


id: history-of-printing-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-9.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
== Theory of movable type transmission == According to a tradition in Feltre and Lombardy, an Italian engraver named Panfilo Castaldi (1398–1490) introduced movable type to Europe after having seen Chinese books brought by Marco Polo. Inspired by the Chinese prints, Castaldi started using wooden movable type and he printed several broadsides at Venice in 1426. The tradition tracing movable type to Castaldi also states that Johannes Gutenberg's wife saw Chinese printing blocks in Venice, which inspired their own invention of printing. This story was recorded by Robert Curzon citing a news article written by a doctor from Feltre dated 1843. Henry Yule (1820–1889), who translated Marco Polo's works, viewed the story with skepticism but believed that Chinese wood blocks could have been transferred via travelers. Guido Panciroli (1523–1599) disputed the theory of European movable type originating in China. Panciroli stated that Gutenberg's movable type was different from that of China and was a "modern thing" although he did not specify what the differences were. André Blum based the difference on the production of movable characters made from a fusible metal. This required three things: "a matrix or mould in which the letter is engraved in intaglio, an alloy cast


id: history-of-printing-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-10.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
It is traditionally surmised that Johannes Gutenberg, of the German city of Mainz, developed European movable type printing technology with the printing press around 1439 and in just over a decade, the European age of printing began. However, the evidence shows a more complex evolutionary process, spread over multiple locations. Also, Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer experimented with Gutenberg in Mainz. A finding in 2015 brought evidence of quires as claimed by extensive research, printed in 1444–1446 possibly assigned to Procopius Waldvogel. Compared to woodblock printing, movable type page-setting was quicker and more durable. The metal type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's movable type printing, which is often regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium. Gutenberg is also credited with the introduction of an oil-based ink which was more durable than previously used water-based inks. Having worked as a professional goldsmith,


id: history-of-printing-20260505-11
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-11.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
Print shop apprentices: Apprentices, usually between the ages of 15 and 20, worked for master printers. Apprentices were not required to be literate, and literacy rates at the time were very low, in comparison to today. Apprentices prepared ink, dampened sheets of paper, and assisted at the press. An apprentice who wished to learn to become a compositor had to learn Latin and spend time under the supervision of a journeyman. Journeyman printers: After completing their apprenticeships, journeyman printers were free to move employers. This facilitated the spread of printing to areas that were less print-centred. Compositors: Those who set the type for printing. Pressmen: the person who worked the press. This was physically labour-intensive. The earliest-known image of a European, Gutenberg-style print shop is the Dance of Death by Matthias Huss, at Lyon, 1499. This image depicts a compositor standing at a compositor's case being grabbed by a skeleton. The case is raised to facilitate his work. At the right of the printing house a bookshop is shown. ==== Financial aspects ==== According to court records from the city of Mainz, Johannes Fust was for some time Gutenberg's financial backer. By the 16th century jobs in printing were becoming


id: history-of-printing-20260505-12
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-12.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
Invented by Bavarian author Alois Senefelder in 1796, lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface. Lithography is a printing process that uses chemical processes to create an image. For instance, the positive part of an image would be a hydrophobic chemical, while the negative image would be water. Thus, when the plate is introduced to a compatible ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image and the water will clean the negative image. This allows for a relatively flat print plate which allows for much longer runs than the older physical methods of imaging (e.g., embossing or engraving). High-volume lithography is used today to produce posters, maps, books, newspapers, and packaging — just about any smooth, mass-produced item with print and graphics on it. Most books, indeed all types of high-volume text, are now printed using offset lithography. In offset lithography, which depends on photographic processes, flexible aluminum, polyester, mylar or paper printing plates are used in place of stone tablets. Modern printing plates have a brushed or roughened texture and are covered with a photosensitive emulsion. A photographic negative of the desired image is placed in contact with the emulsion and the


id: history-of-printing-20260505-13
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-13.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer is a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth on the page and prints by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth ribbon against the paper, much like a typewriter. Unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are drawn out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and arbitrary graphics can be produced. Because the printing involves mechanical pressure, these printers can create carbon copies and carbonless copies. Each dot is produced by a tiny metal rod, also called a "wire" or "pin", which is driven forward by the power of a tiny electromagnet or solenoid, either directly or through small levers (pawls). Facing the ribbon and the paper is a small guide plate (often made of an artificial jewel such as sapphire or ruby) pierced with holes to serve as guides for the pins. The moving portion of the printer is called the print head, and when running the printer as a generic text device generally prints one line of text at a time. Most dot matrix printers have a single vertical line of dot-making equipment on their print heads; others have a few interleaved


id: history-of-printing-20260505-14
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-14.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
Three-dimensional printing is a method of converting a virtual 3D model into a physical object. 3D printing is a category of rapid prototyping technology. 3D printers typically work by 'printing' successive layers on top of the previous to build up a three dimensional object. 3D printers are generally faster, more affordable and easier to use than other additive fabrication technologies. == Technological developments == === Woodcut === Woodcut is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges. The areas to show 'white' are cut away with a knife or chisel, leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original surface level. The block is cut along the grain of the wood (unlike wood engraving where the block is cut in the end-grain). In Europe beechwood was most commonly used; in Japan, a special type of cherry wood was popular. Woodcut first appeared in ancient China. From 6th century onward, woodcut icons became popular and especially flourished in Chinese Buddhism. Since the 10th century, woodcut pictures appeared


id: history-of-printing-20260505-15
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing-15.md
category: reference
title: History of printing
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:12.806227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-printing-20260505-0
summary:
Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates ones it is continuous tone imagery through the use of equally spaced dots of varying size. 'Halftone' can also be used to refer specifically to the image that is produced by this process. The idea of halftone printing originates from William Fox Talbot. In the early 1850s he suggested using "photographic screens or veils" in connection with a photographic intaglio process. Several different kinds of screens were proposed during the following decades, but the first half-tone photo-engraving process was invented by Canadians George-Édouard Desbarats and William Leggo Jr. On October 30, 1869, Desbarats published the Canadian Illustrated News which became the world's first periodical to successfully employ this photo-mechanical technique; featuring a full page half-tone image of His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, from a photograph by Notman. Ambitious to exploit a much larger circulation, Debarats and Leggo went to New York and launched the New York Daily Graphic in March 1873, which became the world's first illustrated daily. The first truly successful commercial method was patented by Frederic Ives of Philadelphia in 1881. But although he found a way of breaking up the image into dots of varying sizes he did not make


id: history-of-psychiatry-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry-0.md
category: reference
title: History of psychiatry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:14.419901+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-psychiatry-20260505-0
summary:
History of psychiatry is the study of the history of and changes in psychiatry, a medical specialty which diagnoses, prevents and treats mental disorders. == Ancient == Specialty in psychiatry can be traced in Ancient India. The oldest texts on psychiatry include the ayurvedic text, Charaka Samhita. Some of the first hospitals for curing mental illness were established during the 3rd century BCE. During the 5th century BCE, mental disorders, especially those with psychotic traits, were considered supernatural in origin, a view which existed throughout ancient Greece and Rome. The beginning of psychiatry as a medical specialty is dated to the middle of the nineteenth century, although one may trace its germination to the late eighteenth century. Some of the early manuals about mental disorders were created by the Greeks. In the 4th century BCE, Hippocrates theorized that physiological abnormalities may be the root of mental disorders. In 4th- to 5th-century BCE Greece, Hippocrates wrote that he visited Democritus and found him in his garden cutting open animals. Democritus explained that he was attempting to discover the cause of madness and melancholy. Hippocrates praised his work. Democritus had with him a book on madness and melancholy. Religious leaders often turned


id: history-of-psychiatry-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry-1.md
category: reference
title: History of psychiatry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:14.419901+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-psychiatry-20260505-0
summary:
== Humanitarian reform == In Saxony, a new social policy was implemented at the beginning of the 18th century in which criminals, prostitutes, vagrants, orphans, and the mentally ill were incarcerated and re-educated in the concepts of the Enlightenment. As a result, a variety of jails, approved schools, and insane asylums were constructed, including the hospital "Chur-Sachisches Zucht-Waysen und Armen-Haus" in Waldheim in 1716, which was the first governmental institution dedicated to the care of the mentally ill on the German territory. Attitudes towards the mentally ill began to change. It came to be viewed as a disorder that required compassionate treatment that would aid in the rehabilitation of the victim. In 1758, English physician William Battie wrote his Treatise on Madness on the management of mental disorder. It was a critique aimed particularly at the Bethlem Hospital, where a conservative regime continued to use barbaric custodial treatment. Battie argued for a tailored management of patients entailing cleanliness, good food, fresh air, and distraction from friends and family. He argued that mental disorder originated from dysfunction of the material brain and body rather than the internal workings of the mind. Thirty years later, then ruling monarch in England George III


id: history-of-psychiatry-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry-2.md
category: reference
title: History of psychiatry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:14.419901+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-psychiatry-20260505-0
summary:
The modern era of providing care for the mentally ill began in the early 19th century with a large state-led effort. Public mental asylums were established in Britain after the passing of the 1808 County Asylums Act. This empowered magistrates to build rate-supported asylums in every county to house the many 'pauper lunatics'. Nine counties first applied, and the first public asylum opened in 1812 in Nottinghamshire. Parliamentary Committees were established to investigate abuses at private madhouses like Bethlem Hospital - its officers were eventually dismissed and national attention was focused on the routine use of bars, chains and handcuffs and the filthy conditions the inmates lived in. However, it was not until 1828 that the newly appointed Commissioners in Lunacy were empowered to license and supervise private asylums. The Lunacy Act 1845 was an important landmark in the treatment of the mentally ill, as it explicitly changed the status of mentally ill people to patients who required treatment. The Act created the Lunacy Commission, headed by Lord Shaftesbury, to focus on lunacy legislation reform. The commission was made up of eleven Metropolitan Commissioners who were required to carry out the provisions of the Act; the compulsory construction of asylums


id: history-of-psychiatry-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry-3.md
category: reference
title: History of psychiatry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychiatry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T04:00:14.419901+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: history-of-psychiatry-20260505-0
summary:
Biological psychiatry reemerged during this time. Psychopharmacology became an integral part of psychiatry starting with Otto Loewi's discovery of the neuromodulatory properties of acetylcholine; thus identifying it as the first-known neurotransmitter. Neuroimaging was first utilized as a tool for psychiatry in the 1980s. The discovery of chlorpromazine's effectiveness in treating schizophrenia in 1952 revolutionized treatment of the disorder, as did lithium carbonate's ability to stabilize mood highs and lows in bipolar disorder in 1948. Psychotherapy was still utilized, but as a treatment for psychosocial issues. In the 1920s and 1930s, most asylum and academic psychiatrists in Europe believed that manic depressive disorder and schizophrenia were inherited, but in the decades after World War II, the conflation of genetics with Nazi racist ideology thoroughly discredited genetics. Now, genetics are once again thought by some prominent researchers to play a large role in mental illness. The genetic and heritable proportion of the cause of five major psychiatric disorders found in family and twin studies is 81% for schizophrenia, 80% for autism spectrum disorder, 75% for bipolar disorder, 75% for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and 37% for major depressive disorder. Geneticist Müller-Hill is quoted as saying "Genes are not destiny, they may give


