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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

[Plato's conceptions of disorders of the soul (Ta peri psuchên nosêmata). Timaeus as the beginning of a dynamic and ethic psychopathology].

This contribution to the study of the evolution of fundamental concepts in psychiatry, and in particular of the interpretative models of mental disease, focuses on Plato's conceptions concerning the "disorders of the soul". Plato's "psychopathological" work suggests the decline of an hereditary conglomeration of interpretative arrangements of the irrational phenomena related to mental disease which, corresponding to the social needs of that time, had been united by the belief in myth and its therapeutic value. These archaic religious conceptions have most certainly been reversed by Plato, especially in his Timaeus, one of the three most influential of his dialogues. In a notable passage in this cosmological dialogue (86b ff.) Plato treats of those diseases of the soul which are caused by things physical, whether this be a "defective bodily constitution" or "faulty education". The diseases of the soul are thus no longer considered having a divine origin. Mental diseases to which man is unwittingly subject by defects in birth or education concern himself and his inner life and they cannot be dismissed with simplistic allegories. According to Plato they originate from a conflict, supported by a secret, hidden, irrational "self" that has its roots in the sôma, the rational "self" being only able to recuperate its total integrity if it manages, through self-discipline and knowledge, to check the somatic impulses, the folly of the body. Also, Plato offers a series of remedies to correct the undue influence of body on soul and soul on body, with a view to instituting a right balance and proportion between them. This, together with a stress on "care of the soul", particularly of the divine and immortal element, implicitly assumes that it is in man's power to apply the necessary remedies to himself and effect some sort of readjustment.

Ethics, Medical↗

PubMed1998

Plato, Nightingale, and contemporary nursing.

PURPOSE: To explore the influence of Plato's ideal of leadership on Nightingale's vision for nursing. Nightingale left her imprint on nursing; greater understanding of Nightingale's legacy clarifies several contemporary problems in the field. ORGANIZING FRAMEWORK: Qualitative, historical research in which the great person framework is used to focus on Nightingale and Plato. Nightingale's familiarity with Plato, whose work she read in the original Greek, is established. SOURCES: Evidence for Platonic influence is uncovered in primary sources, then inductive reasoning and reflective analysis are used. FINDINGS: Nightingale's conception of nursing is akin to Plato's conception of public service. Platonic education aims to turn talented people into leading citizens who care for the good of the community. Modern nursing did not evolve from a craft guild tradition, as did medicine. This profound difference in the constitution of nursing is part of what distinguishes it. CONCLUSIONS: Reminiscent of Plato's "Republic," Nightingale's legacy leaves a guardian-like stamp on nursing. Although this legacy also leaves nursing with some ambiguities about technical training and hierarchical systems, it is an orientation to the general good that provides the basis for nursing's holism.

Education, Nursing↗

PubMed1989

[Plato: forerunner of demographic thinking?].

Since Malthus, several commentators have noted quantitative considerations in Plato's work, regarding him as a forerunner of demographic thinking. But how to explain several demographic contradictions between the Laws and the Republic? This paper brings out the consistency of Plato's thought, which cannot be demonstrated at a purely demographic level. His fascination for mathematics and the influence of the Pythagorean school should 1st be taken into account. However, the City, as an ideal concept and as a concrete social organization is the key to Plato's thought. Confronted with a basic problem of political philosophy, that of [power and justice, Plato proposed to restore the harmony between the City as a political body and the individual citizens. Hence policy measures which we regard unduly as eugenic and demographic, are in fact based on a conception of man quite different from ours.

Demography↗

PubMed2001

Plato and holistic medicine.

Popular visions of holistic health and holistic medicine are not so much reactions to perceived excesses of technological medicine as they are visions of the good life itself and how to attain it. This paper attempts to clarify some of the concepts associated with holistic health and medicine. The particular vision of holistic health presented here is well exemplified in the writings of Plato. First, I examine the scientific concept of holism and argue that, while medicine is inadequately characterized by scientific reductionism, any plausible holistic medicine must make room for a limited scientific reductionism. Next, I analyze the complexity of Plato's usage of "health" and demonstrate some of the parallels between Plato's thought and popular and scientific visions of holistic health. Finally, I look at what Plato has to say about medical practice and the relation of medicine and philosophy as therapies for the whole person.

Greek World↗

PubMed2001

Dietetics in ancient Greek philosophy: Plato's concepts of healthy diet.

Plato (5th-4th century BC), one of the most important philosophers of Greek antiquity, left a valuable spiritual heritage, compiled in his famous dialogues. His teachings extend to almost every single field of human knowledge. Among other philosophical concepts, Plato's works are imbued with the fundamental principle of moderation. This spirit is characteristically evident in his references to human diet. According to the philosopher, a moderate and thus a healthy diet, consists of cereals, legumes, fruits, milk, honey and fish. However, meat, confectionery and wine should be consumed only in moderate quantities. Excesses in food lead to ailments and therefore should be avoided. Plato considers physicians responsible for the regulation of human diet, for medicine is a science and not merely an art as in the case of cookery. The dietary pattern presented in Platonic dialogues shares many common components with the highly-reputed Mediterranean diet. As a whole, Plato's writings represent a valuable source for the study of the nutritional customs during the classical period of ancient Greece.

Diet↗

PubMed1977

An assessment of effectiveness of PLATO basic medical science lessons.

The present study investigated the effectiveness of PLATO basic medical science lessons. Evidence was found that users of the PLATO lessons earned higher mean scores than non-users on subtests of basic science examinations. The findings offer encouragement that PLATO materials may be viable educational tools within a first-year basic science program.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1977

An unconscious irony in Plato's Republic.

This study of some psychological themes in a classical philosophical work, Plato's Republic, is an exercise in applied psychoanalysis that attempts to formulate an integrated psychoanalytic and philosophical understanding of certain ideas to be found in that work. It contains an interpretative study of a legend introduced by Plato at a crucial point in the development of the philosophical argument of the Republic. It is hypothesized that his use of this legend can be traced to an unconscious conflict in Plato, which when identified and interpreted can broaden our understanding and appreciation of the humanity of this work.

Greece↗

PubMed2001

The influence of symbolic literacy on memory: testing Plato's hypothesis.

The present study examined the influence of the production of external symbols on memory strategies. Plato hypothesized that dependency on writing as an external memory store would be deterimental to memory. Three experiments were conducted to explore this hypothesis. Participants played Concentration, a memory game where players must find matching pairs of cards placed face down in an array. Participants were allowed to make notes to aid their performance under some experimental conditions, while under other conditions they could not. In Experiments 1 and 2, the unexpected removal of participants' notes revealed that the performance benefit was due to notes acting as a form of external memory storage, rather than as an aid to encoding information in memory. Experiment 3 qualified these findings by demonstrating that the identity of each card was retained in memory, while the location of each card tended to be stored in the participants' external notations. These data suggest a modified interpretation of Plato's hypothesis in that symbolic literacy may change how we remember information. Rather than storing all information in memory, we only have to retain the information necessary to use the much larger storage capacity of the external system. Thus, the introduction of external symbols allows for a change in how memory is adaptively distributed.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Medicine as metaphor in Plato.

This article (1) argues that ancient Greek medicine had a significant effect on the way in which Plato conceived of ethics, and (2) explores some ways in which Plato integrated medical concepts such as "health" into his ethics. Specific parallels between ancient medicine and such concepts as eudaimonia, soul, nature and convention, etc., are discussed, as is the relation between conceptions of health and medical treatment.

Ethics, Medical↗

PubMed1992

Plato's model of the psyche: a holistic model for nursing interventions.

Plato's theory about psychodynamic forces is used to develop a holistic model for nursing practice. The dysphoric emotional state of demoralization is conceptualized as an imbalance between Spirit, Appetite, and Reason. Interventions are designed for elderly clients who show objective and subjective signs of demoralization. The objective indicators are measured with the Psychiatric Epidemiological Research Interview (PERI), before and after the implementation of individualized interventions. Results for the 23 subjects who completed the study in an assisted-living environment are suggestive of the effectiveness of basic nursing interventions in remediating the symptoms of demoralization. Plato's model of the psyche is an elegant, yet simple, conceptual tool for understanding the mental health needs of clients.

Aged↗

PubMed1975

Cost of initial development of PLATO instruction in veterinary medicine.

The cost of initial development of PLATO instruction during a 4-year period was $483,266. Of this amount, $220,765 were for equipment or renovation. The cost of lesson development for the entire 4 years averaged about $828 per hour of instruction. If 86 students used the lessons in each class at a maximum rate, over a 5-year period the cost per student-contact hour averages $1.93. With experience this figure should be reduced substantially. The median time required for an individual to program an hour of instruction for the entire 4 years was approximately 77 hours; however, under certain conditions a programmer may require as little as 36 1/2 hours. Programmer efficiency is based on a number of factors such as the quality and complexity of the lessons, experience of the programmer, and his knowledge of the subject matter. The University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine PLATO project has been developmental. The expense of continuing the project at this college or of initiating a similar project at another college should be much less as a result of this experience.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗

PubMed1995

[Non-Hippocratic references in Plato's dialogues].

Plato's references to contemporary medicine are of a twofold nature. They initially concern Hippocratic medicine, first as an epistemological model in opposition with sophistic arguments, secondly as an instrument to define 'political art'. But in the later dialogues, Plato's references to medicine appear to evolve into a 'non-Hippocratic', magical type. This second type of reference-mostly in the Laws-is no longer metaphorical or analogical: it serves to determine the procedures that must be followed by the Law-Giver to establish a theocratic order.

Greece, Ancient↗

PubMed1993

Plato, sociology and nursing.

Although sociology plays an increasingly important role in nurse education, many nurse learners are unable to assimilate sociological knowledge in relation to nursing practice. The relevance of sociology and its contribution to nursing is questioned and its usefulness is lost in a self-imposed web of confusion. Using the allegory of Plato's cave, I suggest that the root of the problem lies in the epistemology of nursing and the manner in which the culture of nursing is reproduced. From this premise, the use of seminar learning to dismantle the web will be discussed in this paper.

Education, Nursing↗

PubMed1999

Accuracy evaluation of fusion of CT, MR, and spect images using commercially available software packages (SRS PLATO and IFS).

PURPOSE: A problem for clinicians is to mentally integrate information from multiple diagnostic sources, such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), whose images give anatomic and metabolic information. METHODS AND MATERIALS: To combine this different imaging procedure information, and to overlay correspondent slices, we used commercially available software packages (SRS PLATO and IFS). The algorithms utilize a fiducial-based coordinate system (or frame) with 3 N-shaped markers, which allows coordinate transformation of a clinical examination data set (9 spots for each transaxial section) to a stereotactic coordinate system. The N-shaped markers were filled with fluids visible in each modality (gadolinium for MR, calcium chloride for CT, and 99mTc for SPECT). The frame is relocatable, in the different acquisition modalities, by means of a head holder to which a face mask is fixed so as to immobilize the patient. Position errors due to the algorithms were obtained by evaluating the stereotactic coordinates of five sources detectable in each modality. RESULTS: SPECT and MR position errors due to the algorithms were evaluated with respect to CT: deltax was < or = 0.9 mm for MR and < or = 1.4 mm for SPECT, deltay was < or = 1 mm and < or = 3 mm for MR and SPECT, respectively. Maximal differences in distance between estimated and actual fiducial centers (geometric mismatch) were in the order of the pixel size (0.8 mm for CT, 1.4 mm for MR, and 1.8 mm for SPECT). In an attempt to distinguish necrosis from residual disease, the image fusion protocol was studied in 35 primary or metastatic brain tumor patients. CONCLUSIONS: The image fusion technique has a good degree of accuracy as well as the potential to improve the specificity of tissue identification and the precision of the subsequent treatment planning.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1999

The early history of the synapse: from Plato to Sherrington.

One hundred years ago, in 1897, Sherrington adopted the name synapse. However, the concept of the synapse emerged from considerations of how muscles are contracted and so locomotion affected over a period of 2400 years, from the time of Plato and Aristotle in the 4th century BC to the early part of the 20th century. This early history is considered in the present review. In terms of duration of influence, the early history was dominated by Aristotle's concept of vital pneuma. This was derived from the ether which filled all space, taken in by the lungs, transformed to vital pneuma in the heart, and then conducted in the blood stream to be transmitted to muscles. The vital pneuma then initiated the final phase of the muscle's psyche, that is, its contraction leading to locomotion. Aristotle's ideas had to be modified with the discovery by Galen and his students in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD that nerves arising from the brain and spinal cord are necessary for the initiation of muscle contraction. They modified the Aristotlean account so that the vital pneuma delivered by blood vessels to the brain was converted there to psychic pneuma, from whence it was conducted along nerves to be transmitted to muscle, so allowing the muscle to contract. There matters rested for about 1300 years until Descartes. Descartes rejected the idea of organs and muscles possessing a psyche with a final cause that was released by the conduction and transmission of psychic pneuma in nerves, emphasising that mechanical explanations must be sought when determining the function of an organ or muscle. He argued in his corpuscular theory that fine particles derived from the blood in the brain, which he gave the unfortunate name of animal spirits, were conducted and transmitted along nerves to enter muscle during transmission, so leading to the increase in width of the muscle fibres, their shortening and contraction. This description was elaborated on in great detail by Descartes, and by his contemporary Borelli, in the 17th century. In the 18th century, Swammerdam carried out a series of brilliant experiments that showed that the Descartes/Borelli theory could not be correct, muscles did not change their volume during contraction, and so could not be contracted by being swollen due to an influx of the corpuscles that made up the animal spirits. These results were published at about the time of the birth of Galvani (1737), whose work was to show that animal spirits were not corpuscular but electrical. The triumph of 19th century physiology, primarily due to Matteucci, du Bois-Reymond and Helmholtz, was to take Galvani's discoveries and show that nerves possessed a potential across their walls that could give rise to a propagating transient potential change which was transmitted to muscles with a finite velocity. Although Sherrington refined the concept and adopted the word "synapse" at the end of that century, it was not until the early part of the 20th century that a conceptual scheme for the synapse involving transmitters and receptors was developed. This clearly delineated a new period following the early history of synaptic transmission.

Animals↗

PubMed2001

Reason and value: the thought of Plato and Aristotle and the construction of intellectual disability.

The thought of Plato and Aristotle in relation to the construction of intellectual disability is considered. Key elements in their thought are reviewed, which may have relevance for the construction of, and social response to, intellectual disability in Western societies. Specifically, I consider the "scale of beings"; the requirements of virtue and what constitutes a "good person"; and the relationship among reason, responsibility, and moral and legal status. My purpose was to demonstrate that the exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities is inherent in Western epistemology and that it is only change at this level that will ensure true equality for those labeled as having intellectual disabilities.

Humans↗

PubMed2001

Plato's conception of the relations between moral philosophy and medicine.

The first part of this article construes crucial passages from the Platonic dialogues as evidence that Plato takes medicine as a model for moral philosophy and as one of the organizing principles for his writing of the dialogues. The second part reflects upon the significance of one of the most debatable implications of the model: the comparison between health and illness, on the one hand, and moral virtue and moral vice, on the other. It articulates 10 illuminating aspects of this comparison and two potentially serious objections to it. The third part of this article examines what the model implies about the roles of medicine and moral philosophy in the political community and about the natures of doctor-patient and philosopher-interlocutor relationships. It highlights Socrates' criticisms of a kind of politics that covers over moral causes of social disorders by means of Band-Aid legislation, and emphasizes that according to the model, both the doctor and the moral teacher confront agents who must cooperate in the process of reform and accept whatever responsibility they have for their conditions.

Ethics, Medical↗

PubMed1990

Androgyne becomes bisexual in sexological theory: Plato to Freud and neuroscience.

Plato conceptualized primordial humans as androgynes, the children of the moon. The primordial hermaphroditism of the mammalian embryo became known 2 1/2 millennia later in the mid-19th century. By 1864 Ulrichs had transposed the new knowledge from embryology to sexology to explain those to whom he gave the name Urnings (after Uranus who gave womanless birth to Venus from sea spume) as having "a woman's mind trapped in a man's body" (anima muliebris corpore virili inclusa). Urning became displaced by sexual inversion, and eventually by homosexual, a term coined together with heterosexual by Kertbeny as recently as 1869. The embryological principle of primordial hermaphroditism became linked to evolutionary Darwinism by way of Haeckel's principle of recapitulation, epitomized as "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." The recapitulation principle became linked, in turn, to the principle of intrapsychic primordial bisexuality, which became a cornerstone of Freud's psychoanalytic theory. Genetics influences the outcome of bipotentiality not directly but by way of hormonal programming of the brain, prenatally or neonatally, rather than pubertally and in maturity. Bipotentiality within the brain has been investigated chiefly in the hypothalamus where male/female dimorphism has been recognized, but its determinants and stages of differentiation, both prenatal and postnatal, remain to be fully ascertained. Neuroanatomical research on the outcome of male/female bipotentiality as gay, straight, or in between is politically and morally opposed by those who postulate a bipotential preference or voluntary choice. In stimulus-response associationism, to which behavior-modification theory belongs, bisexuality is equipotential, and either alternative may be evoked, ostensibly, dependent on the stimulus situation. In ethological theory, the effectiveness of stimulus-response bonding is confined chronologically to a critical period of development and is restricted phylogenetically by an innate recognition mechanism and an innate releasing mechanism. These limits are compatible, however, with some degree of both individual and ethnic variation.

Bisexuality↗