Sedler M J
Am J Psychiatry. 1983 Sep;140(9):1127-33. doi: 10.1176/ajp.140.9.1127.
Jean Pierre Falret's once celebrated but now neglected 1854 description of "circular insanity" has not been translated into English until now. This seminal essay clearly articulated for the first time the rudimentary elements of our present diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder. It contains lucid descriptions of manic excitement and depression and the "switch" from one to the other; moreover, it emphasizes the importance of course and prognosis, as well as hereditary and epidemiologic factors. Although American psychiatry instinctively looks to the German literature for its foundations in Kraepelin, Bleuler, and Freud, the translation of Falret's essay represents an effort to trace contemporary psychiatric concepts to their origins in nineteenth-century France.
让·皮埃尔·法勒在1854年对“循环性精神病”的描述曾备受赞誉，但如今已被忽视，直到现在才被翻译成英文。这篇具有开创性的文章首次清晰地阐述了我们目前对双相情感障碍诊断的基本要素。它对躁狂兴奋和抑郁以及两者之间的“转换”进行了清晰的描述；此外，它强调了病程和预后以及遗传和流行病学因素的重要性。尽管美国精神病学本能地从德国文献中寻找其在克雷佩林、布鲁勒和弗洛伊德等人著作中的基础，但翻译法勒的文章是为了追溯当代精神病学概念在19世纪法国的起源。
