In ancient Greek scholarswere of the opinion that mental diseases were caused by an imbalance in fourhumors of the body. The three humors which influenced mentaldisorders termed melancholia, mania and an acute mentaldisorder accompanied by fever. This was contrary to the supernatural or divineexplanations of illness. The belief that disease was the product ofenvironmental factors, diet and living habits, not as a punishment inflicted bythe gods, and that the treatmentdepended on which bodily fluid, or humor, had caused the problem. Around427-347 BC the belief that there were twotypes of mental illness: divinely inspired mental illness that gave the personprophetic powers and a type that was caused by a physical disease. By 384 BC, thedivinely caused mental illness theory was abandoned and the proposal thatinstead all mental illness was caused by physical problems.
In ancient Greece and Rome,madness was associated the stereotype of pointless wandering and violence.
The Romans absorbedmany Greek ideas on medicine, as well as other cultures, through the conqueringof nations. The humor theory was discarded and scholars advocated humanetreatments, and had insane persons freed from confinement and treated them withnatural
therapy, such as diet and massages.
Playwrights described madmenas being driven insane by the Gods, imbalanced humors or circumstances. Mania wasoften used as a term for insanity; there were a variable range of terms fordelusion, eccentricity, frenzy, and lunacy. Some physicians argued thatinsanity is really present when a continuous dementia begins with imaginings.They suggested that people must heal their own souls through philosophy andpersonal strength. Common practices were bloodletting, drugs, talkingtherapy, incubation in temples, exorcism, incantations and amulets,as well as restraints and torture to restore rationality; starvation, beingterrified suddenly, agitation of the spirit, and stoning and beating.Most, of the mentally ill did not receive medical treatment but stayed with familyor wandered the street. The usual symptoms of delusions of the time includedpeople who thought them to be famous actors or speakers, animals, inanimateobjects, or one of the gods.
By the middle Ages, Persian and Arabicscholars were involved in translating, analyzing and Greek texts and beliefs.With the expansion of the Muslim world, these ideas were joined together withreligious thought. New ideas and concepts were developed over time. Arab texts containedwhole discussions of melancholia. Mania and other disorders includinghallucinations and delusions were also described. Mental disorder was thoughtto be caused by reason gone being lost, and diseases of the as well as to spiritualor mystical meaning. Fear and anxiety, anger and aggression, sadness anddepression, and obsessions were recorded.
Under Islam, the mentallydisordered were considered incapable but deserved humane treatment andprotection. The first psychiatric hospital ward was created in Baghdad inand insane asylums were built in Fes, Cairo in and in Damascus around1270. Insane patients were compassionately treated using baths, drugs, musicand activities. For centuries to come, translations of many scientificIslamic texts, Canon of Medicine became the standard of medical science inEurope together with works of Hippocrates.
European Christianity in the middle Ages inEurope the basis of mental illness were a mixture of the divine diabolical magical and transcendental.The four humors black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood were employed, somephysicians promoted trepanning as a cure to let demons and excess humorsescape. Other remedies in general use included bloodletting and whipping.Madness was often seen as a moral issue, either a punishment for sin or attest offaith. Christian theology supported various therapies, fasting and prayerfor those who turned away from God and exorcism of those possessed bythe devil. Mental disorders were thought to be due to sin although thebelief those other factors could be taken in consideration. Mass dancingmania is reported from the middle Ages. This was one kind of massdelusion or mass hysteria that has occurred around the world through the millennia.
The care of lunatics was theresponsibility of the family. In England, if the family were unable or notwilling to take custody , representatives of the courts with a local jury andall interested persons, with the individual. Those considered lunatics had the support and involvement from thecommunity more often than those who have a mental illness today. Visionswere interpreted as meaningful spiritual and prophetic insights.
During the 16th to 18th centuries somementally disturbed people may have been victims of the witch-hunts thatspread in early modern Europe, but those judged insane were admitted to workhouses, poorhousesand jails especially the paupers, some went to the new private madhouses. Restraintsand confinement were used for those thought dangerous or harmful to themselves,others or property.
Madness was commonly depicted inliterary works, such as the plays of Shakespeare
By the end of the 17th centuryand into the Enlightenment, madness was increasingly seen as an organic physicaloccurrence, not involving the soul or moral responsibility. The mentally ill wereviewed as wild animals. Restraint in chains was seen as helping contain the animalfuries. Treatment in the few public asylums was harsh, inferior only to prisons.The most well known is Bedlam where at one time spectators could payto watch the inmates as entertainment. Towards the end of the 18th century,a moral treatment movement developed, that implemented more humane,psychosocial and personalized methods.
The 19th century, with industrialization andpopulation growth, saw an expansion of the number and size of insane asylums. However, very little therapeutic activityoccurred in the new asylum system, the little more there was seldom medical attentionto patients, except for other physical problems.
Reports of many mental disordersand irrational uncontrolled behavior are common in historical records back toancient times, some disorders; they were relatively rare prior to the 19thcentury.
By the 1870s in North America,officials who ran Lunatic Asylums renamed them Insane Asylums.
The 20th century brought about psychoanalysis.
Asylum administers attempted toimprove the image of the asylums. Asylum inmates were referred to as patients andasylums renamed as hospitals. Referring to people as having a mental illnessbegan during this period of the early 20th century.
In Nazi Germany, theinstitutionalized mentally ill were the earliest victims of sterilization ithas been estimated that over 200,000 individuals with mental disorders of allkinds were put to death.
Funding was often cut forasylums, during periods of economic decline, and wartime and many patientsstarved to death.
Previously restricted to thetreatment of severely disturbed people in asylums, psychiatrists cultivatedclients with a broader range of problems, and between 1917 and 1970 the numberpracticing outside institutions swelled from 8 percent to 66 percent. Theterm stress was become popular and was linked to mental disorders.
Lobotomies, insulin shock therapy,electro convulsive therapy became commonly used in the mid-century.
In the 1960s deinstitutionalization graduallyoccurred, with isolated psychiatric hospitals being closed down withthe advanced opening of community mental health service.
With the medical advances andnewer more effective medications there is still little improvement in thestigma and shame of having a mental disorder. The closure of many of the state hospitals have brought a about theproblem that has had little impact on the people with mental disorders. Instead of learning from the past it seemsthat there is a revolving door of returning to the past.
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