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Introduction
The Psychopathology of Passions was explored through Sir Alexander Crichton in his book: An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Mental Derangement: Comprehending a Concise System of the Physiology and Pathology of the Human Mind, and a History of the Passions and their Effects (1798). Critchon explored the physiology of passions through a medical lens, during a time period when the young discipline of psychiatry was just embarking on its fight for professional autonomy and recognition as a legitimate branch of medicine.

Psychopathology of Passions
The Psychopathology of Passions, penned by Sir Alexander Crichton around the late Eighteenth century, attempts to explain the physiological mechanism of passion from a medical point of view. As a defining attribute of the enlightenment era, the knowledge of understanding the human condition influenced researchers, philosophers and writers of the time period to explore the different aspects of humanity. Critchon approached the 'passions' as 'when our animal desires and aversions are opposed, or not gratified' and thus 'new desires and aversions arise, which are attended with painful and pleasurable feelings that are totally distinct from those which gave birth to the primary desire or aversion. He discuss the 'painful' and 'pleasurable' feelings 'are felt about the praecordia. In this case, the praecordia is understood to be the area of the chest cavity encompassing ‘particularly the heart, diaphragm, and organs of respiration. He further discusses the well versed battle of the head and heart, where emotions are of such a powerful nature as often to destroy all the operations of cool reason, creating 'violent agitation and disorder'. His book encapsulates one of the first of its kind to document passion from a purely physiological approach, focusing on the six passions of joy, fear, anger, love, grief and sorrow. Each passion holds its own modification and spectrum, which Critchon determined by homology rather than analogy and resemblance. This anticipates the individuation by homology proposed by several modern day philosophers of emotion. Crichton's psychopathology was built on the idea that passion could be classified as 'pleasurable passions' which are related to 'mental pleasures' and 'painful passions' which are related to 'mental pains '.

Pleasurable Passions
Joy is considered as one of the basic pleasurable passions by Crichton. It's modifications include hope, self-satisfaction, compassion, gratitude, regard, love etc. He said that joyful passions and their modifications all makes us experience pleasurable feelings to various extent. He argued that all of these pleasurable passions share similar physiological profile and they are only different in their degree and intensity. When mentioned about the effects of joy and it's modifications Crichton wrote, joy causes an "increased action in the heart and arteries", which in turn affects the respiratory organs and also causes pupils to dilate. This can be observed by the heightened pulse and dilated pupils. Joy also affects our stomach, intestine and other parts of the body. Crichton said that joy 'contributes to good health' and leaves a 'tonic effect' in the body. He found that joy has positive effects on the mind and makes the brain 'easy and ready for action' by 'stimulating it' in a positive way. He noted that in this state humans have sharper attention, quick judgement and more accurate brain functioning. In moderation, joy is parallel to good mental and physical wellbeing. However in extreme, it can lead to negative mental and physical results. For example, Pride and vanity which are modifications of joy, stems from erroneous judgement and leaves people in disappointments.

Painful Passions
Similar to mental pleasures, mental pains can also be categorised into several physiological prototypes. Grief and sorrow encapsulate the basic prototype for a painful passion. These come under an umbrella of other similar terms, including distress, sorrow, anguish and despair. If mental pain is felt due to a past event, this is referred to as 'remorse' or 'repentance'. Sorrows based on a future potentiality include 'anxiety' and 'dread'. Crichton noted that in painful passions ‘the heart, and aorta, and its lager vessels, and the whole system of the pulmonary artery, become loaded and distended with blood’. He found that persistent mental pains and negative passions lead to sleep and eventually coma and catalepsy. Negative passions exhaust the body and makes us feel depressed. A constant fixed and uniform focus of thought on the cause of grief is also sometimes said to be characteristic of the continued mental pains. Crichton highlights that both pleasant and painful feelings are at times, the result of the peculiar or constitutional susceptibility of feeling of our nerves; a susceptibility constantly changing by age, education, diet, climate, exercise, health, or disease.

Role on Mental Illness
Crichton's psychopathology of passions and his work in the Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Mental Derangement made a marked impact in understanding passions, emotion and feelings in Psychiatry. HIs psychopathology of passion recognises the physiologically embodied characters of passions that may have an effect on mental illness. He was the first to truly study the passions in the name of medicine in order to accommodate them in a purely biological psychopathology of mental illness. For example, joy in moderation helps us feel and perform better. Whereas constant focus on the cause of grief and sorrow continues and furthers mental pain. His work contributed to Phillipee Pinel and Jean-Etienne Esquirol future work on their own physiologically-oriented views about how the passions are involved within mental illness. According to historian Roy Porter (2003: 312), Crichton ‘held that the philosophy of mind formed an essential component of under-standing madness’.

Legacy
Alexander Crichton (1763–1856) made significant contributions to the medical theory of the passions. Psychopathology of passions was the first attempt to understand the mechanism of emotions in the body and its potential influence on health. Throughout his own lifetime, his work is said to have brought him considerable fame throughout both the medical world, and wider society. Both Philippe Pinel (1745–1826) and Jean-Etienne Esquirol (1772–1840) acknowledge the contributions of Alexander Critchon on their theories - which academics conclude played a significant role in the work of the aforementioned men. It provided important additional support for their own physiologically-oriented views about how the passions figure in mental illness. Despite this, Crichton remained absent from leading historical studies of a large part of the history of physiology and neurology.