Albert the Great's interpretation of neuropsychiatric symptoms in the context of scholastic psychology and physiology* 1

Abstract

Albert the Great (ca. 1193–1280) serves as an example to show how the Latin West successfully integrated Greco‐Arabian psychology with Galenic physiology. He divised a model of perceptive, cognitive and mnestic powers located in different areas of the “brain cells”; and interacting with the immaterial and man‐specific intellect. He managed to describe anmesis, epileptic seizures and psychotic states as results of disturbed brain fuction. Finally, further aspects of Scholastic theorizing on mental disorders are discussed.