ABSTRACT
Psychiatry began to emerge as a distinct medical discipline at the end of the 18th century. During the first half of the 19th century, psychiatry did view sexuality as important, as the element called upon to assess a link between madness and sin. The central argument of the Psychikers emphasized a structural distinction between febrile delirium and psychic delusions. Hence individual madness could be reformulated in terms of the history of the subject's passions, and was often seen as the final outcome of the subject giving in to vice and sin. This framework allowed for the development of a treatment approach that was personal: the "moral treatment", as psychotherapy was referred to at the time. The field of psychiatry underwent a profound reorganization between 1850 and 1860 as "Naturphilosophie" was replaced by "Naturwissenschaft", and the "soul" began to take a back seat to the brain.
