Diogenes
Diogenes, according to Greek legend, was a beggar who lived in a barrel in ancient Athens. Diogenes had one possession: his cup, which he used to drink water. Diogenes was well known for his curmudgeonly behavior to anyone who approached him, and according to legend, even snubbed Alexander the Great by asking him to move out of the way of the. Diogenes (404-323 b.c.) 20 Diogenes was a native of Sinope, son of Hicesius, a banker. Diocles relates that he went into exile because his father was entrusted with the money of the state and adulterated the coinage. Romanos Diogenes was the son of Constantine Diogenes (died 1032) and a member of a prominent and powerful Byzantine Greek family from Cappadocia, connected by birth to most of the great aristocratic nobles in Asia Minor. His mother was a daughter of Basil Argyros, brother of the emperor Romanos III. Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume I, Books 1-5 (Loeb Classical Library No. 184) by Diogenes Laertius and R. Hicks Jan 1, 1925. 4.9 out of 5 stars. Diogenes, widely remembered as ‘Diogenes of Sinope’, was an exemplary and esteemed Greek philosopher who is ranked among the founders of the Cynic philosophy. He was the only student of Antisthenes, and a principal upholder of his teacher’s asceticism and ethical ideologies.
What is Diogenes Syndrome?
Diogenes Syndrome Is In medical literature, Diogenes syndrome (DS) is described as a behavioral disorder mainly affected elderly people. The characteristic features of this condition are severe neglected physical condition, isolation from social activity, familial squalor and syllogomania or severe hoarding disorder1.
Incidence
It has been estimated that the incidence of DS is up to 0.5 per 1000 population per year. The predominance of this disease usually occurs at the age of 60 or more, who are living home for prolonged period of time, though in some cases younger individuals also affected.
The reorganization of DS is difficult as the symptoms are similar to other behavioral or cognitive disorders. Kvaser ab others driver download for windows 10. It has been also noticed that females are more affected than male, especially those who live alone at home. The disease incidence rate also showed that widows are more affected1,2.
Causes
The affected individuals have a history of loneliness usually due to stay alone for a prolonged period of time at home. They unable to explode emotional distress. Different case history showed that certain factors trigger Diogenes Syndrome.
- Mental disorder illness
- History of abuse
- Introvert characteristics is one of the characteristic features of the Diogenes Syndrome
- Suspicious and unfriendly personality trait.
Apart from the above-mentioned factors, complex etiology of the behavioral conditions associated with Diogenes Syndrome due to psychiatric and/or neurological co-morbidities. However, it is not necessary the presence of these co-morbidities in every case.
In certain cases, schizoid and paranoid traits are observed. Other health conditions also aggravated Diogenes Syndrome, which includes:
- Stroke
- Arthritis or bone fracture related immobility
- Congestive cardiac failure
- Dementia
- Vision impairment
- Chronic weakness
- Depression1,3,4
Symptoms
Symptoms are gradually developed and occur. At the early stage of the Diogenes Syndrome, affected individual withdrawing herself from the social situation and avoiding others. Diogenes Syndrome affected individuals may also have poor judgment, personality alteration, and improper behaviors.
These symptoms appear long before the Diogenes Syndrome identified. The cause of these symptoms is due to intense isolation. The alarming symptoms associated with an undiagnosed individual may include:
- Poor hygiene leads to skin rashes, fleas or lice in the body.
- Uncombed, knotted hair
- Nails are overgrown
- Body odor
- Untidy appearance
- Inexplicable injuries
- Dehydration
- Malnutrition
The included personality traits in DS affected individuals are as follows:
- Unfriendliness
- Stubbornness
- Aggressiveness
- Independence
- Eccentricity
- Paranoia
- Aloofness
- Detachedness
- Compulsivity
- Narcissism
- Lack of insight
- Indirect self-destructive behavior, even suicidal tendency
- The arrangement of the house, where affected person stay also exhibit signs of negligence and putrefy, which include
- Presence of huge number of rodent
- The distressing quantity of waste in and around the home
- Horrible smell in the house
- Diogenes syndrome affected individuals have some typical symptoms, which include
- Self negligence
- Unhygienic surroundings
- severe hoarding disorder
- Sleep-wake rhythm disorders
- Not accepting their situation
- Irresponsive about personal and surrounding unhygienic condition
- Unwillingness to take other’s help and support
- It has been noticed some medical and psychiatric co-morbidities are associated with Diogenes syndrome:
- Dementia
- Depression Contributory factors1,3,4
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Diagnosis
- Comprehensive medical history assessment including behavioral disturbances history is important. Other included diagnostic process include a physical examination.
- In blood test iron, calcium, potassium vitamin B12, folate, serum proteins, and albumin need to screen to identify Diogenes Syndrome affected the individual.
- In general for testing baseline parameters liver function tests, renal function, and thyroid status need to check.
- Identification of underlying cause requires neuro-imaging tests like MRI or PET scan require to perform1,4.
Management
Management of Diogenes Syndrome affected an individual is difficult. There are no clear guidelines available. Different pharmacological or non-pharmacological therapeutic approaches are applied to provide best possible management of Diogenes Syndrome affected individuals.
- Self-management of Diogenes Syndrome affected an individual is not possible, even hospital admission also not appropriate for Diogenes Syndrome affected the individual. Day care and community care are the main lines of management.
- Safety and showing respect towards patient are very important.
- Different case history showed certain medical therapy like risperidone, sodium valproate and quetiapine provide an effective result.
- Serotonin reuptake inhibitors are prescribed to manage the compulsive hoarding behaviors.
- Care giver plays an important role in the management of Diogenes Syndrome affected individual1,4.
References
- Gabriele Cipriani, Claudio Lucetti, Marcella Vedovello, Angelo Nuti. Diogenes syndrome in patients suffering from dementia. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2012 Dec; 14(4): 455–460. Online available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3553571/
- Berlyne N., Twomey J., Henderson S. mith SL. Diogenes syndrome. Lancet. 1975;1:515.
- Jeffrey DC Irvine, Kingsley Nwachukwu; Recognizing Diogenes syndrome: a case report; BMC Res Notes. 2014; 7: 276. Published online 2014 May 2. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-7-276. Online available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4016666/
- Corey Whelan, (2016). Understanding Diogenes Syndrome. healthline. Online available at http://www.healthline.com/health/diogenes-syndrome#treatment5
Diogenes Quotes
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Diogenes Download
Muratec printers driver download. For centuries of European art, it was one of the most frequently portrayed moments from classical antiquity. Wikimedia Commons includes more than fifty artistic renderings of an apocryphal meeting of the young Alexander of Macedonia (later to be known as “the Great”) and the much older Diogenes of Sinope (later to be known as “the Cynic”).
It is hard to imagine a more unlikely pair. Alexander was the brash young king of Macedonia, who had conquered Greece and was on his way to conquering the world. He can be assumed to have been dressed at the time of the meeting in regal attire befitting his status and to have been accompanied by a retinue of attendants.
Diogenes was the antisocial, ascetic philosopher who lived in a barrel and rejected all of the norms of civilized behavior. He is usually portrayed as almost naked and unkempt, with long hair and a beard. It was widely known that he urinated, defecated, and masturbated in public, to show his contempt for the conventions of society. Caricatures of him in later times often included a lighted lamp that he is said to have carried even in the daytime, as he went in futile search for an honest man.
The brief encounter of the two is generally said to have taken place in Corinth, where Diogenes lived in his later years. The only occasion on which Alexander visited Corinth was soon after the death of his father in 336 BCE. Alexander would have been twenty at the time, and Diogenes would have been around seventy. Different versions of the story of the meeting are found in various ancient sources,* most notably in Plutarch’s Life of Alexander (at 14) and Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Eminent Philosophers (at 6.38).
Most likely Alexander was well aware of who Diogenes was. The philosopher had supposedly been taken captive by his father King Philip II during an earlier campaign against the Greeks. According to Plutarch (at Moralia 70d), upon being asked by Philip whether he was a spy, Diogenes had said, “I most certainly am a spy, Philip. I spy on your absence of wisdom and common sense, which is the only thing forcing you to go and gamble your kingdom and your life in a single moment.”
According to Epictetus in his Discourses (at 3.22.92), at the time of the encounter in Corinth, Diogenes was asleep when Alexander approached. Alexander, who was an enthusiastic reader of the Iliad, is said to have quoted a line (2.24) spoken by the divine Dream to Agamemnon: “To sleep the whole night through ill befits a man of counsel.” Diogenes, awakening, countered by quoting the very next line while still half-asleep, “Who has people to watch over and a multitude of cares.”
According to Diogenes Laertius in his life of Diogenes (at 6.60), Alexander stood over the philosopher and said, “I am Alexander the great king.” To which Diogenes responded, “I am Diogenes the dog.” When Alexander asked what he had done to be called a dog, he said, “I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals.”
In the most famous exchange of the meeting, Alexander asked Diogenes whether there was anything he could do for him. Diogenes, who was enjoying the warmth of the autumn sun, answered, “Stand aside to stop blocking the sun.” This abrupt response, showing his utter contempt for the power and prestige that Alexander craved, spawned the large number of artistic renderings that followed.
Although Alexander’s attendants took umbrage at Diogenes’ rudeness to their king, Alexander himself was not displeased. Leaving, he is said to have remarked, “If I were not Alexander, I would want to be Diogenes.”
In spite of his antisocial behavior, Diogenes’ influence in ancient philosophy was enormous. Along with his teacher Antisthenes, he was the founder of an influential school of philosophy known as the Cynics. The name of the school comes from the Greek adjective κυνικός (kunikos), meaning “dog-like,” after the Greek noun for dog κύων (kuōn, genitive kunos).
Diogenes Pronunciation
The reason for the name Cynics is uncertain. Naturally it has been assumed to come from Diogenes’ animalistic manner of living, but more likely it came from the location of the philosophic school in the Cynosarges area of Athens. A well-known 1848 painting by Edwin Landseer even portrayed Diogenes and Alexander as dogs (reportedly* the inspiration for Walt Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp).
Legend has it that Diogenes and Alexander died on the same day in 323 BCE, one having conquered the world and thereby extended the reach of Greek civilization, the other having subverted the norms of civilized society altogether. Their brief meeting was captured in a famous bas-relief sculpture by Pierre Puget from ca. 1680, now in the Louvre.
Drivers ncstech laptops & desktops. *For full citations to the many ancient sources and modern references, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_and_Alexander#
Image credits
Jacques Gamelin, “Alexandre et Diogène,” 18th century.
Jules Bastien-Lepage, “Diogenes,” Musée Marmottan, Paris, 1905.
Nicolas-André Monsiau, ”Alexander and Diogenes”, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France, 1818.
Edwin Henry Landseer, “Alexander and Diogenes,” Tate Collection, London, 1848.
Pierre Puget, Musée du Louvre, vers 1680.
Bibliography
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, vol. 2, trans. by R.D. Hicks (Witch Books, 2011).
Epicurus, Discourses, Fragments, and Handbook, trans. by Robin Hard, Oxford, 2014.
Plutarch, Essays, trans. by Robin Waterfield, Penguin, 1992.
Plutarch, Greek Lives, trans. by Robin Waterfield, Oxford, 2008.
Diogenes The Cynic
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Laura Ford (“Tritogeneia”) is a once and future classicist who has combined a lifelong interest in Greek literature and philosophy with a career in law, higher education administration, and private school teaching. Now retired, she lives in central Virginia.