Traité des maladies mentales

Benedict Augustin Morel, an Austrian-born French psychologist, introduced the term dementia praecox in his 1860 work, Trait\u00e9 des maladies mentales (A Treatise on Mental Illness). This term referred to a mental and emotional deterioration that begins around puberty. Morel's work explored the causes of mental illness, initially focusing on heredity but later considering external factors like alcohol and drugs. He viewed mental deficiency as the final stage of mental degeneration, which could include mental illness. The disorder he described was later renamed schizophrenia by Eugen Bleuler.1