This beautiful illustration comes from a textbook called Cerrahiyetu'l Haniyye (Imperial Surgery) by Serefeddin Sabuncuoglo (1385-1470), who lived and practised medicine in Amasya in northern Anatolia.
Sabuncuoglo's book, which was published in 1465, is the first illustrated textbook of surgery. It contains several sections devoted to the treatment of psychiatric conditions. The illustration above depicts the use of cauterization (the burning of small areas of tissue) to treat various neuroses.
(Found via this post at Mind Hacks)
Comments (5)
That's awfully cool and rather disturbing. Are those black dots supposed to represent neuroses disappearing, or brain ash?
Posted by: js | July 21, 2007 10:12 PM