Causable mania (reactive, puerperal, secondary, life event related). The development of an idea

This paper reviews the development of the concept of non-endogenous mania from myth to psychiatry and on to today. The varieties of causable mania are examined and an attempt is made to bring together the evidence which has been growing in the last few years from research in various different areas. As a result, a bridge appears between organic and psychoanalytical conceptualizations of mania, which may have important consequences for the management of manic patients in the future. Mania emerges as part of the depressive process rather than as its opposite.