This in-depth course on the History and Concepts of Psychiatry, presented by Dr. Ghaemi, offers a clear tour from ancient Greece to the DSM and beyond, providing a coherent framework for thinking scientifically and practicing humanistically. It is designed for psychiatrists, psychiatric NPs/PAs, primary-care clinicians, psychologists, and trainees seeking historical depth and conceptual clarity to improve real-world clinical decisions.

The course will examine the conceptual and historical aspects of psychiatric theory and practice, reviewing the evolution of beliefs about mental illness and its treatments from antiquity through the 19th and 20th centuries. The focus is on central figures and ideas that persist today, including the Hippocratic approach to medicine, and the works of Emil Kraepelin, Sigmund Freud, and Karl Jaspers, among others. The modern evolution of these ideas will be explored through the biopsychosocial model, the rise of DSM-III and subsequent editions, and the influence of cultural postmodernism on both mainstream psychiatry and its critics.

The fee corresponds to the full course value, and access is granted automatically upon registration. You will receive an email with your login and password, unlocking all 8 recorded sessions, which total approximately 7–8 hours of in-depth lectures.

Learning Objectives and Key Skills You'll Gain:

• Analyze the conceptual assumptions underlying current psychiatric concepts, such as the DSM nosology and the biopsychosocial model.
• Distinguish between Hippocratic, disease-based medicine and Galenic, symptom-based approaches, understanding how this ancient debate echoes in today’s “chemical imbalance” narratives.
• Trace the major split in psychiatry after 1900 between Kraepelin’s disease courses and Freud’s psychoanalysis, with Bleuler’s “schizophrenia” as a bridge.
• Apply Karl Jaspers' methods of causal explanation versus meaningful understanding to interpret clinical cases, and see how existential/phenomenological ideas (Binswanger, Heidegger) map onto clinical states.
• Understand the origins and limits of the biopsychosocial model (Meyer → Engel) and how pragmatic eclecticism has shaped mainstream practice.
• Read the DSM historically, from its origins as an administrative list to its current symptom-checklist format, and learn to judge diagnostic validity beyond symptoms alone.
• Adopt “medical humanism” by being biological and reductionistic when disease warrants it, yet fully person-centered for interpersonal, existential, or social problems.
• Utilize course-of-illness and family-history validators—plus the best available evidence—to make cleaner diagnoses and safer, more effective decisions.

Course Structure:

The curriculum consists of eight theoretical classes, each lasting approximately 60 minutes. The planned lecture topics are as follows:

1. Beginnings: Ancient Greece to the 19th Century
2. What is Mental Illness?
3. Emil Kraepelin and the Rise of Biological Psychiatry, Freud and the Freudians
4. Karl Jaspers and Existential Psychiatry
5. Cultural Postmodernism and Psychiatry
6. The Rise and Fall of the Biopsychosocial Model
7. Origins and Flaws of the DSM
8. Future Possibilities

Included are concise slide walkthroughs linking history, philosophy, and clinical practice, providing practical frameworks you can use the next day for diagnostic validation, model selection, and deciding when to favor medication, psychotherapy, or both.