The new psychotropics defeated existing psychiatric vocabulary

Evidence

I was struck,” wrote Pierre Deniker in 1975, “by the number of terms invented to account for what was new but difficult to define. Gangioplegic, potentializer, vegetative stabilizer, neurolytic, neuroplegic, psychoplegic, narcobiotic, ataraxic, and tranquillizers were each proposed in turn.” The word “neuroleptic” was adopted in France in 1954 by Delay and Deniker because it was the neurological activity that determined the remedy. … Clearly, it was difficult to pin down the effects of a remedy for the mind when there was no tradition upon which such an evaluation could rely. — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 398

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s broader theme of naming psychic states and to ch1 on how neurosis gave ordinary people a language for suffering — both are episodes of vocabulary struggling to catch up with clinical reality. — connects to: Chlorpromazine separated calming from loss of consciousness for the first time — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 395; Depression became defined as whatever antidepressants cured — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 674; New phenomena require new vocabulary, but familiar terms get repurposed — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 203 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Traces how ‘neuroleptic’ was coined in 1954 by Delay and Deniker and why, and why ‘tranquillizer’ was preferred in the US.

Broader Connections

• New phenomena require new vocabulary, but familiar terms get repurposed #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 203
• Anterograde amnesia captures the postmodern inability to accept the new #exemplifies (0.80) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 122