MENTAL HEALTH AND HEALTH OF THE SOUL IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
DIAGNOSTIC, ETIOLOGY AND THERAPY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-50652024000100208Keywords:
mental health, health of the soul, Plato, ChrysippusAbstract
This article addresses the conceptualization of mental health from ancient philosophy as “health of the soul.” Between the positive/normative approach to health as well-being and the privative/descriptive approach as lack of disease, the study demonstrates, through a revision of the foundational texts of Plato (Timaeus) and the Stoics, in particular Chrysippus (On the Passions), that health of the soul is formulated from a naturalistic ethical approach. In order to position philosophy as a disciplinary extension of medicine, these authors establish health as the highest point of the agent's rational and moral development, eudaimonia (happiness). This concept of health is not a simple metaphor, but rather health in a strict sense, understood from a teleological nature and oriented towards the psychophysical unity. The present study highlights the importance of considering the health of the soul as a positive concept of well-being, so the philosopher is not only seen as analogous to the doctor, but as a doctor-philosopher. Most studies on the subject, focused on pathology, tend to isolate the affections of the soul (i.e., the passions) by using the dualistic framework while abandoning the incidence of environmental factors and the interaction of the soul with the body. From an analysis that rehabilitates the systemic and holistic criteria offered by the texts, the article develops a pathological diagnosis of ignorance as a complete state of the body-soul, an etiology that incorporates environmental factors (upbringing, education), and a preventive therapy.
References
Primaria
Diogenes Laercio (1999). Vitae philosophorum. Ed. M. Marcovich. Leipzig: Teubner, 1999.
Cicerón (1931). Tusculanarum Disputationum. Ed. G. Fohlen. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1931.
Galeno (1978). De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis. Ed. P. de Lacy. CMG 5, 4, 1, 2. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978
Hipócrates (1839-1861). Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate, 10 vols. Ed. E. Littre. Baillière: Paris.
Jenofonte (1921). Opera omnia, vol. II . Ed. E.C. Marchant. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1921.
Platón (1900) Platonis opera, vol. 1. Ed. J. Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Platón (1901). Platonis opera, vol. 2. Ed. J, Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Platón (1902). Platonis opera, vol. 4. Ed. J. Burnet. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press.
Platón (1903). Platonis opera, vol. 3. Ed. J. Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Plutarco (1967). Plutarchi moralia, vol. 7. Ed. F.H. Sandbach. Leipzig: Teubner.
Plutarco (1966). Plutarchi Moralia vol. 6, 3. Ed. K. Ziegler and M. Pohlenz. Leipzig: Teubner.
Séneca (1925). Ad Lucilium Epistulae, vol. III. Ed. y trad. R. M. Gummere. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Von Arnim, J. (1903). Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, vol. 3, Leipzig: Teubner.
Von Arnim, J. (1903). Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, vol. 2, Leipzig: Teubner.
Von Arnim, J. (1905). Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, vol. 1, Leipzig: Teubner.
Bibliografía Secundaria
Ahonen, M. (2014) Mental Disorders in Ancient Philosophy. Dordrecht: Springer.
Boeri, M.D. (2007) Apariencia y Realidad en el pensamiento griego: Investigaciones sobre aspectos epistemológicos, éticos y de teoría de la acción en algunas teorías de la antigüedad. Buenos Aires: Colihue.
Boeri, M. (2009) “Does Cosmic Nature Matter? Some Remarks on the Cosmological Aspects of Stoic Ethics en R. Salles (ed.) God and cosmos in Stoicism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 173-200.
Boeri M. D. y Salles, R. (2014). Los filósofos estoicos. Ontología, Lógica, Física y Ética. Traducción, comentario filosófico y edición anotada de los principales textos griegos y latinos. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.
Boorse, C. (1977). Health as a Theoretical Concept. Philosophy of Science, 44(4), 542–573.
Cornford, F.M. (1937). Plato’s Cosmology: The Timaeus of Plato / Translated with a Running Commentary by Francis Macdonald Cornford. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Costa, I, (2017). “Terapias del cuerpo y del alma en el Timeo” en Magnavacca, Silvia, Santa Cruz, María Isabel y Soares, Lucas (eds.) Conocerse, cuidar de sí, cuidar de otro. Reflexiones antiguas y medievales. Buenos Aires: Editorial Miño y Dávila, pp. 143-70.
Donini, P. (1995), 'Struttura delle passioni e del vizio e loro cura in Crisippo', Elenchos 16.2: 305-329.
Edelstein, L. (1967). “The relation of ancient medicine to philosophy” en O. Temkin y C. L. Temkin (Eds.), Ancient medicine: Selected papers of Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 349–366.
García Gual, C.; Cabellos Álvarez, B. (1986). Tratados hipocráticos III. Introducciones, traducciones y notas. Madrid: Gredos.
Gill, C. (1985). “Ancient psychotherapy”, Journal of the History of Ideas, 46: 307–325.
Gill, C. (1997). “Galen versus Chrysippus on the Tripartite Psyche in Timaeus 69-72'” en T. Calvo and L. Brisson (eds.), Interpreting the Timaeus and the Critias: Proceedings of the Nth Symposium Platonicum (Sankt Augustin: Akademia).
Gill, C. (2006) The Structured Self in Hellenistic and Roman Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gill, C. (2000) “The Body’s Fault? Plato’s Timaeus on psychic illness” en M. R. Wright (ed.) Reason and Necessity: Essays on Plato’s Timaeus. The: Classical Press of Wales, 59-84.
Gill, C. (2013). Philosophical Therapy as Preventive Psychological Medicine en W. V. Harris (ed.) Mental Disorders in the Classical World. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 339-362.
Graver, M. (2007). Stoicism & emotion. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press.
Harris, W. V. (Ed.). (2013). Mental disorders in the classical world. Leiden: Brill.
Harris, W.V. (2013). “Thinking about Mental Disorders in Classical Antiquity” en W. V. Harris (ed.) Mental Disorders in the Classical World. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 1-26.
Inwood, B. (1985). Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Jouanna, J. (2013). “The Typology and Aetiology of Madness in Ancient Greek Medical and Philosophical Writing” en W. V. Harris (ed.) Mental Disorders in the Classical World. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 97-118.
Knuuttila, S. (2004). Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Konstan, D. (2006). The emotions of the ancient Greeks: Studies in Aristotle and classical literature. Toronto: university of Toronto Press.
Lakoff, Q. and Johnson, M. (1981). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Long, A. A. & Sedley, D. N. (1987) The Hellenistic philosophers. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Nordenfelt, L. (2017). “On Concepts of Positive Health” en T. Schramme y S. Edwards (Eds.) Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine. Dordrecht: Springer.
Nussbaum, M. C. (1994). La terapia del deseo: teoría y práctica en la ética helenística. Trad. Miguel Candel. Barcelona: Paidós.
Nutton, V. (2013). Ancient Medicine. Second edition. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Pigeaud, J. (1981). La maladie de l’âme: étude sur la relation de l´âme et du corps dans la tradition médico-philosophique antique. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Pigeaud, J. (1987). Folie et cures de la folie chez les médecins de l’antiquité gréco-romaine: La manie. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Pigeaud, J. (2008). Melancholia: La malaise de l’individu. Paris: Éditions Payot & Rivages.
Pigeaud, J. (2015). The Triumph of Dualism in Ancient Psychopathology. Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy, 5: 3: 1-7.
Price, A. W. (1995). Mental conflict. London: Routledge
Radden, J. (2019). "Mental Disorder (Illness)", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. EdwardN.Zalta (Ed.),URL<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/mental-disorder/>.
Reydam-Schils, G. (1999). Demiurge and Preovidence. Stoic and Platonist Readings of Plato's Timaeus. Monotheismes et Philosophie. Collection dirigee par C. Levy. Turnhout: Brepols.
Roccatagliata, G. (1986). A history of ancient psychiatry. New York: Greenwood Press.
Sadler, J.Z. (2005). Values and Psychiatric Diagnosis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Salles, R. (2009) “Introduction: God and cosmos in Stoicism” en R. Salles (ed.) God and cosmos in Stoicism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-22
Simon, B. (1978). Mind and madness in ancient Greece: The classical roots of modern psychiatry / Bennett Simon. Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press.
Sorabji, R. (2000). Emotion and peace of mind: From Stoic agitation to Christian temptation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Taylor, A. E. A (1928). Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Thumiger, C. (2017). A History of the Mind and Mental Health in Classical Greek Medical Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thumiger, C, Singer, PN (Eds.) (2018). Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine: From Celsus to Paul of Aegina. Leiden: Brill.
Tieleman, T. (2003). Chrysippus’ on Affections: Reconstruction and Interpretation. Leiden: Brill.
Torres, J. (2020). The Analogies of Justice and Health in Republic IV. Archiv Für Geschichte Der Philosophie, 102(4), 556–587.
Torres, J. (2021). Plato’s Medicalisation of Ethics. Apeiron (Clayton), 54(3), 287–316.
Zamora Calvo, J. M. (2010) Timeo de Platón. Traducción e introducción de notas y anexos de Luc Brisson. Madrid: Abada.
Diogenes Laercio (1999). Vitae philosophorum. Ed. M. Marcovich. Leipzig: Teubner, 1999.
Cicerón (1931). Tusculanarum Disputationum. Ed. G. Fohlen. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1931.
Galeno (1978). De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis. Ed. P. de Lacy. CMG 5, 4, 1, 2. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978
Hipócrates (1839-1861). Oeuvres complètes d’Hippocrate, 10 vols. Ed. E. Littre. Baillière: Paris.
Jenofonte (1921). Opera omnia, vol. II . Ed. E.C. Marchant. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1921.
Platón (1900) Platonis opera, vol. 1. Ed. J. Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Platón (1901). Platonis opera, vol. 2. Ed. J, Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Platón (1902). Platonis opera, vol. 4. Ed. J. Burnet. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press.
Platón (1903). Platonis opera, vol. 3. Ed. J. Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Plutarco (1967). Plutarchi moralia, vol. 7. Ed. F.H. Sandbach. Leipzig: Teubner.
Plutarco (1966). Plutarchi Moralia vol. 6, 3. Ed. K. Ziegler and M. Pohlenz. Leipzig: Teubner.
Séneca (1925). Ad Lucilium Epistulae, vol. III. Ed. y trad. R. M. Gummere. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Von Arnim, J. (1903). Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, vol. 3, Leipzig: Teubner.
Von Arnim, J. (1903). Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, vol. 2, Leipzig: Teubner.
Von Arnim, J. (1905). Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, vol. 1, Leipzig: Teubner.
Bibliografía Secundaria
Ahonen, M. (2014) Mental Disorders in Ancient Philosophy. Dordrecht: Springer.
Boeri, M.D. (2007) Apariencia y Realidad en el pensamiento griego: Investigaciones sobre aspectos epistemológicos, éticos y de teoría de la acción en algunas teorías de la antigüedad. Buenos Aires: Colihue.
Boeri, M. (2009) “Does Cosmic Nature Matter? Some Remarks on the Cosmological Aspects of Stoic Ethics en R. Salles (ed.) God and cosmos in Stoicism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 173-200.
Boeri M. D. y Salles, R. (2014). Los filósofos estoicos. Ontología, Lógica, Física y Ética. Traducción, comentario filosófico y edición anotada de los principales textos griegos y latinos. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.
Boorse, C. (1977). Health as a Theoretical Concept. Philosophy of Science, 44(4), 542–573.
Cornford, F.M. (1937). Plato’s Cosmology: The Timaeus of Plato / Translated with a Running Commentary by Francis Macdonald Cornford. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Costa, I, (2017). “Terapias del cuerpo y del alma en el Timeo” en Magnavacca, Silvia, Santa Cruz, María Isabel y Soares, Lucas (eds.) Conocerse, cuidar de sí, cuidar de otro. Reflexiones antiguas y medievales. Buenos Aires: Editorial Miño y Dávila, pp. 143-70.
Donini, P. (1995), 'Struttura delle passioni e del vizio e loro cura in Crisippo', Elenchos 16.2: 305-329.
Edelstein, L. (1967). “The relation of ancient medicine to philosophy” en O. Temkin y C. L. Temkin (Eds.), Ancient medicine: Selected papers of Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 349–366.
García Gual, C.; Cabellos Álvarez, B. (1986). Tratados hipocráticos III. Introducciones, traducciones y notas. Madrid: Gredos.
Gill, C. (1985). “Ancient psychotherapy”, Journal of the History of Ideas, 46: 307–325.
Gill, C. (1997). “Galen versus Chrysippus on the Tripartite Psyche in Timaeus 69-72'” en T. Calvo and L. Brisson (eds.), Interpreting the Timaeus and the Critias: Proceedings of the Nth Symposium Platonicum (Sankt Augustin: Akademia).
Gill, C. (2006) The Structured Self in Hellenistic and Roman Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gill, C. (2000) “The Body’s Fault? Plato’s Timaeus on psychic illness” en M. R. Wright (ed.) Reason and Necessity: Essays on Plato’s Timaeus. The: Classical Press of Wales, 59-84.
Gill, C. (2013). Philosophical Therapy as Preventive Psychological Medicine en W. V. Harris (ed.) Mental Disorders in the Classical World. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 339-362.
Graver, M. (2007). Stoicism & emotion. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press.
Harris, W. V. (Ed.). (2013). Mental disorders in the classical world. Leiden: Brill.
Harris, W.V. (2013). “Thinking about Mental Disorders in Classical Antiquity” en W. V. Harris (ed.) Mental Disorders in the Classical World. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 1-26.
Inwood, B. (1985). Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Jouanna, J. (2013). “The Typology and Aetiology of Madness in Ancient Greek Medical and Philosophical Writing” en W. V. Harris (ed.) Mental Disorders in the Classical World. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 97-118.
Knuuttila, S. (2004). Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Konstan, D. (2006). The emotions of the ancient Greeks: Studies in Aristotle and classical literature. Toronto: university of Toronto Press.
Lakoff, Q. and Johnson, M. (1981). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Long, A. A. & Sedley, D. N. (1987) The Hellenistic philosophers. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Nordenfelt, L. (2017). “On Concepts of Positive Health” en T. Schramme y S. Edwards (Eds.) Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine. Dordrecht: Springer.
Nussbaum, M. C. (1994). La terapia del deseo: teoría y práctica en la ética helenística. Trad. Miguel Candel. Barcelona: Paidós.
Nutton, V. (2013). Ancient Medicine. Second edition. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Pigeaud, J. (1981). La maladie de l’âme: étude sur la relation de l´âme et du corps dans la tradition médico-philosophique antique. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Pigeaud, J. (1987). Folie et cures de la folie chez les médecins de l’antiquité gréco-romaine: La manie. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Pigeaud, J. (2008). Melancholia: La malaise de l’individu. Paris: Éditions Payot & Rivages.
Pigeaud, J. (2015). The Triumph of Dualism in Ancient Psychopathology. Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy, 5: 3: 1-7.
Price, A. W. (1995). Mental conflict. London: Routledge
Radden, J. (2019). "Mental Disorder (Illness)", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. EdwardN.Zalta (Ed.),URL<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/mental-disorder/>.
Reydam-Schils, G. (1999). Demiurge and Preovidence. Stoic and Platonist Readings of Plato's Timaeus. Monotheismes et Philosophie. Collection dirigee par C. Levy. Turnhout: Brepols.
Roccatagliata, G. (1986). A history of ancient psychiatry. New York: Greenwood Press.
Sadler, J.Z. (2005). Values and Psychiatric Diagnosis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Salles, R. (2009) “Introduction: God and cosmos in Stoicism” en R. Salles (ed.) God and cosmos in Stoicism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-22
Simon, B. (1978). Mind and madness in ancient Greece: The classical roots of modern psychiatry / Bennett Simon. Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press.
Sorabji, R. (2000). Emotion and peace of mind: From Stoic agitation to Christian temptation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Taylor, A. E. A (1928). Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Thumiger, C. (2017). A History of the Mind and Mental Health in Classical Greek Medical Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thumiger, C, Singer, PN (Eds.) (2018). Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine: From Celsus to Paul of Aegina. Leiden: Brill.
Tieleman, T. (2003). Chrysippus’ on Affections: Reconstruction and Interpretation. Leiden: Brill.
Torres, J. (2020). The Analogies of Justice and Health in Republic IV. Archiv Für Geschichte Der Philosophie, 102(4), 556–587.
Torres, J. (2021). Plato’s Medicalisation of Ethics. Apeiron (Clayton), 54(3), 287–316.
Zamora Calvo, J. M. (2010) Timeo de Platón. Traducción e introducción de notas y anexos de Luc Brisson. Madrid: Abada.
Published
2024-08-02
How to Cite
Silva, T. (2024). MENTAL HEALTH AND HEALTH OF THE SOUL IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY: DIAGNOSTIC, ETIOLOGY AND THERAPY. LÍMITE Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy & Psychology, 19. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-50652024000100208
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