Vitalism - History
Research News and Information

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Jung, vitalism and 'the psychoid': an historical reconstruction.

30 Jan 2009 This paper traces the history of Jung's ideas concerning the psychoid unconscious, from their origins in the work of the vitalist, Hans Driesch, and his concept of Das Psychoid, through the subsequent work of Eugen Bleuler, Director of the ... Read more...

Form--a matter of generation: the relation of generation, form, and function in the epigenetic theory of Caspar F. Wolff.

29 Nov 2008 The question, how organisms obtain their specific complex and functional forms, was widely discussed during the eighteenth century. The theory of preformation, which was the dominant theory of generation, was challenged by different alternative ... Read more...

Montpellier vitalism and the emergence of alienism in France (1750-1800): the case of the passions.

29 Nov 2008 This paper considers how certain ideas elaborated by the Montpellier vitalists influenced the rise of French alienism, and how those ideas framed the changing view of passions during the eighteenth century. Various kinds of evidence attest that the ... Read more...

Latest indexed articles for 'Vitalism - History'

These are the very latest articles for this heading:

• Jung, vitalism and 'the psychoid': an historical reconstruction. 30 Jan 2009
• Form--a matter of generation: the relation of generation, form, and function in the epigenetic theory of Caspar F. Wolff. 29 Nov 2008
• Montpellier vitalism and the emergence of alienism in France (1750-1800): the case of the passions. 29 Nov 2008
• Of two lives one? Jean-Charles-Marguerite-Guillaume Grimaud and the question of holism in vitalist medicine. 29 Nov 2008
• Can matter mark the hours? Eighteenth-century vitalist materialism and functional properties. 29 Nov 2008
• The animal economy as object and program in Montpellier vitalism. 29 Nov 2008
• Irritability and sensibility: key concepts in assessing the medical doctrines of Haller and Bordeu. 29 Nov 2008
• Regulating agents, functional interactions, and stimulus-reaction-schemes: the concept of "organism" in the organic system theories of Stahl, Bordeu, and Barthez. 29 Nov 2008
• What ever happened to Francis Glisson? Albrecht Haller and the fate of eighteenth-century irritability. 29 Nov 2008
• Introduction: Vitalism without metaphysics? Medical vitalism in the enlightenment. 29 Nov 2008
• Claude Bernard and an introduction to the study of experimental medicine: "physical vitalism," dialectic, and epistemology. 16 Jun 2007
• [Environment as vision. The life and work of Jakob von Uexkülls (1864-1944)] 30 Dec 2006
• [Chinese sphygmology and the development of a new vitalistic concept of the animal nature by vitalistic Montpelliérains] 30 May 2006
• The personal and scientific feud between Ernst Brücke and Josef Hyrtl. 30 May 2006
• The Beer/Bethe/Uexküll paper (1899) and misinterpretations surrounding 'vitalistic behaviorism'. 30 Dec 2005
• Worthy heir or treacherous patricide? Konrad Lorenz and Jakob v. Uexküll. 30 Aug 2005
• Mechanism, vitalism and organicism in late nineteenth and twentieth-century biology: the importance of historical context. 30 May 2005
• The real Dr Frankenstein: Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein? 30 Oct 2002
• The neuroscience of Helmholtz and the theories of Johannes Müller. Part 1: Nerve cell structure, vitalism, and the nerve impulse. 30 May 2002
• Acid test finally wiped out vitalism, and yet... 12 Dec 2000

See a longer list of these articles.

Technical information about 'Vitalism'

Definition: The metaphysical doctrine that the functions and processes of life are due to a vital principle distinct from physicochemical forces and that the laws of physics and chemistry alone cannot explain life functions and processes. Vitalism is opposed to mechanistic materialism. The belief was that matter was divided into two classes based on behavior with respect to heat: organic and inorganic. Inorganic material could be melted but could always be recovered by removing the heat source. Organic compounds changed form upon heating and could not be recovered by removing the heat source. The proposed explanation for the difference between organic and inorganic compounds was the Vitalism Theory, which stated that inorganic materials did not contain the "vital force" of life.

Descriptor UI: D014799

Alternative terms: Vitalism; Vitalisms;

Allowable Qualifiers: history; psychology;

Tree Number: K01.752.935;