The ancient Egyptians were the ones with the best treatments for this given time period. They attempted to aid the mentally ill by engaging them in society. This includes dances, concerts, and other various social activities that might end up “normalizing” them.
Full Answer
What are some ancient remedies that you won't believe in?
15 Bizarre Ancient Remedies You Won’t Believe Existed. 1 Poo ointment. Tatiana Ayazo/Rd.com, shutterstock. 2 Bloodletting. 3 Leech therapy. 4 Sipping urine. 5 Trepaning. More items
How were the ill treated in the monasteries?
Monasteries were also a welcome haven for the ill. Some towns had madmen towers which were used to incarcerate the one who are “deprived of reason”. In those towers the ill would be placed in special chambers called “narrenturme”.
What are the treatments for abnormality in religious societies?
The treatment for abnormality in religious societies was more related to exorcisms. The idea was to coax evil spirits to leave the person or to make the person's body uncomfortable for the spirit to force them to leave.
How has the treatment of abnormal functioning changed over the years?
However, the past 50 years have brought major changes in methods of treating abnormal functioning. There are new psychotropic medications to help those that are depressed or psychotic.
How was abnormality treated in the past?
The most common treatment was exorcism, often conducted by priests or other religious figures: Incantations and prayers were said over the person's body, and she may have been given some medicinal drinks.
How did ancient societies treat abnormal behavior?
Prehistoric cultures often held a supernatural view of abnormal behavior and saw it as the work of evil spirits, demons, gods, or witches who took control of the person. This form of demonic possession was believed to occur when the person engaged in behavior contrary to the religious teachings of the time.
Who cared for mentally ill in ancient times?
Mentally ill individuals were cared for at home by family members and the state shared no responsibility for their care. Humorism remained a recurrent somatogenic theory up until the 19th century.
What treatments were used in insane asylums?
To correct the flawed nervous system, asylum doctors applied various treatments to patients' bodies, most often hydrotherapy, electrical stimulation and rest.
How was mental illness treated in ancient Egypt?
Ancient Egyptians seem to be the most forward-thinking in their treatment of mental illness as they recommended that those afflicted with mental pathology engage in recreational activities such as concerts, dances, and painting in order to relieve symptoms and achieve some sense of normalcy.
How did the earliest societies care for persons with mental illness?
In early 19th century America, care for the mentally ill was almost non-existent: the afflicted were usually relegated to prisons, almshouses, or inadequate supervision by families. Treatment, if provided, paralleled other medical treatments of the time, including bloodletting and purgatives.
How did they treat mental illness in the Middle Ages?
Patients were housed in family homes, madhouses, prisons, asylums and hospitals. They were still separated from society, and people could tour the asylums to view those who were mentally ill. Treatment included ice baths, dieting, purges, bleeding and chain restraints.
Did therapy exist in medieval times?
Middle Ages c. 900 – al-Razi (Rhazes) recognized the concept of "psychotherapy" and referred to it as al-'ilaj al-nafs.
How were mentally ill patients treated in the 1700s?
In the 18th century, some believed that mental illness was a moral issue that could be treated through humane care and instilling moral discipline. Strategies included hospitalization, isolation, and discussion about an individual's wrong beliefs.
How did Victorians treat mental illness?
Mental illness was recognised as something that might be cured or at least alleviated. It was no longer acceptable to keep poor mentally ill people in workhouses and prisons, so state provision of asylums became mandatory.
How did they treat illness in the 1800s?
Traditional medical practices during most of the 19th century relied on symptomatic treatment, consisting primarily of bloodletting, blistering, and high doses of mineral poisons. These medical regimens resulted in high rates of death in patients unfortunate enough to undergo treatment.
What did Roman doctors do to help with mental health?
Roman physicians treated mental disorders with massage and warm baths, with the hope that their patients be as comfortable as possible. They practiced the concept of “ contrariis contrarius ”, meaning opposite by opposite, and introduced contrasting stimuli to bring about balance in the physical and mental domains.
What was the treatment for melancholia in the 1950s?
He noticed that after experiencing a severe shock his memories had changed and in published work, suggested physicians study electric shock as a treatment for melancholia. Beginning in the 1950s, psychiatric or psychotropic drugs were used for the treatment of mental illness and made an immediate impact.
What was Hippocrates' view on mental illness?
Hippocrates believed mental illnesses could be treated as any other disorder and focused on the underlying pathology.
What was the most important development in the Renaissance?
The most noteworthy development in the realm of philosophy during the Renaissance was the rise of humanism, or the worldview that emphasizes human welfare and the uniqueness of the individual. This helped continue the decline of supernatural views of mental illness. In the mid to late 1500s, Johann Weyer (1515-1588), a German physician, published his book, On the Deceits of the Demons, that rebutted the Church’s witch-hunting handbook, the Malleus Maleficarum, and argued that many accused of being witches and subsequently imprisoned, tortured, hung, and/or burned at the stake, were mentally disturbed and not possessed by demons or the Devil himself. He believed that like the body, the mind was susceptible to illness. Not surprisingly, the book was met with vehement protest and even banned from the church. It should be noted that these types of acts occurred not only in Europe but also in the United States. The most famous example was the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in which more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were killed.
What was the effect of death on the Middle Ages?
Death was ever present which led to an epidemic of depression and fear. Nevertheless, near the end of the Middle Ages, mystical explanations for mental illness began to lose favor and government officials regained some of their lost power over nonreligious activities.
What were the methods used to rid the Devil of his influence?
Mental illness was yet again explained as possession by the Devil and methods such as exorcism, flogging, prayer, the touching of relics, chanting, visiting holy sites, and holy water were used to rid the person of the Devil’s influence. In extreme cases, the afflicted were confined, beat, and even executed.
How did asylums start?
Hospitals and monasteries were converted into asylums. Though the intent was benign in the beginning, as they began to overflow patients came to be treated more like animals than people. In 1547, the Bethlem Hospital opened in London with the sole purpose of confining those with mental disorders. Patients were chained up, placed on public display, and often heard crying out in pain. The asylum became a tourist attraction, with sightseers paying a penny to view the more violent patients, and soon was called “Bedlam” by local people; a term that today means “a state of uproar and confusion” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bedlam).
Why did ancient societies believe in abnormal behavior?
Most ancient societies believed that all events around and within them were from the actions of magical, possibly sinister, beings who controlled the entire world. In particular, they viewed the human body and mind as battlegrounds for good and evil to fight over. Abnormal behavior was seen as a victory for evil spirits, where the cure was to force the demons from a victim's body.
What did Hippocrates teach about abnormal behavior?
Greek and Roman Views. For 1,000 years, philosophers and physicians gave different explanations for abnormal behaviors. Hippocrates taught that illnesses had natural causes. His perception of abnormal behavior was as a disease from internal physical problems.
What is the view that the chief causes of abnormal functioning are often psychological?
Even worse, biological views and claims let some groups try eugenic sterilization. Psychogenic - This is the view that the chief causes of abnormal functioning are often psychological. Greek and Roman physicians believed many mental disorders are caused by fear, disappointment in love, and other psychological events.
What were the four humors that caused mania?
The four humors were as follows: yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. Too much yellow bile caused mania, a state of frenzied activity.
What was the purpose of removing a skull?
Trephination was used for individuals with hallucinations, seeing or hearing things that are not there, or melancholia, extreme sadness, and immobility. The reason for removing pieces of the skull was to release the evil spirits that were supposedly causing the problem. However, trephination may have been used to remove bone splinters or blood clots caused by stone weapons during tribal warfare. Even so, it is certain that societies believed abnormal behavior was related to demonic possessions.
Why did societies believe that abnormal behavior was related to demonic possessions?
The idea was to coax evil spirits to leave the person or to make the person's body uncomfortable for the spirit to force them to leave.
What was the purpose of the Abnormal Behavior?
Abnormal behavior was seen as a victory for evil spirits, where the cure was to force the demons from a victim's body.
Who was the first person to use humoral theory?
The classical Greek physician Hippocrates of Kos (460-375 BCE) first postulated his humoral theory in the late 5th century BCE. He used it to explain a wide range of biological concepts and illnesses, moving people away from superstition as a cause of illness toward more natural causes. What may not be well-known is the connection between Hippocrates and mental health.
What is the treatment of mental illness?
Today, treatment of mental illness is a combination of medication and psychotherapy, as doctors aim to treat and cure the whole person rather than only focusing on the symptoms of mental illness. This has led many doctors to reevaluate Hippocrates in a more modern light and his emphasis on finding a life balance as a cure for illnesses, including mental ones
How Much Support Did This Theory Have?
As a medical philosophy, humoralism remained the primary way to treat mental illness until the middle of the 19th century — almost 2,500 years after Hippocrates first proposed it. It wasn’t only physicians who viewed humors as connected to mental illness. Great writers like Shakespeare and Ben Johnson frequently refer to humors in relation to character. Shakespeare used the word many times in sonnets and plays. Hamlet, for instance, was thought to have too much black bile, which played a role in his melancholic attitude towards the world.
What is Hippocrates' contribution to the medical field?
Hippocrates is credited with having written (or at least inspired) the Hippocratic Corpus, which gathered more than 70 medical texts together. It was in this work that he first advanced his theory of the four humors to explain the main causes of illnesses in humans. It was Hippocrates‘ attempt to separate the causes of illness from superstition. His work was later widely disseminated by the Roman physician Galen (129-216 CE). This strengthened the role it played in the treatment of illnesses, both physical and mental.
What did Hippocrates believe about mental illness?
Hippocrates also believed body parts played a role in mental illness. Sadly, this was to become a curse for women for two millennium. The Greek word for uterus is hyster. When describing diseases that affect women, Hippocrates thought that one of the causes of illness in women was a “wandering womb.” Thus, the idea of hysteria was born. This idea was to be used against women who might or might not have been suffering from mental illness until the early part of the 20th century.
Who was the first psychoanalyst?
In the mid- to late 19th century, men like Joseph Breuer (1842-19 25) and Sigmund Freud (1956-1939) started to articulate psychological explanations for mental illness rather than physical ones. These were the first steps of psychoanalysis, which dominated much of the first half of the 20th century.
What Was “Humoral Theory”?
Hippocrates’s humoral theory of illness proposed that the body consisted of four humors: black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm. These humors represented different aspects of a human, connected to the four elements (wind, air, earth and fire) and the four seasons (spring, summer, fall and winter). While these four humors could be used to describe physical illnesses, they could also be used to describe mental conditions. Black bile was associated with someone who was melancholic, yellow bile with a choleric temperament, blood with someone who was sanguine and phlegm with a person who was phlegmatic.
Who was the surgeon who cured stuttering?
We can credit Prussian surgeon J. F. Dieffenbach for the cruel stuttering remedy of the 1840s, the hemiglossectomy. The barbaric procedure entailed partial removal of the patient’s tongue—this was done without anesthesia. Despite the nature of the treatment, the surgeon believed he was really curing people by halting vocal cord spasm. Today we have the American Speech Language Hearing Association, which details the positive impact speech therapy can have on those with speech issues.
What was the name of the stuff that was used to calm infants?
The stuff was openly advertised as a serum which would calm your infant, while providing rest for weary mothers.
Why are leeches important?
Leeches were key to the bloodletting process , and through the ages, have been used as a treatment for infection, skin diseases, dental afflictions, and nervous system abnormalities, shares PBS. But perhaps their most miraculous attribute has kept them relevant in today’s medicine—leeches secrete specific peptides and proteins that increase wound blood flow, by preventing clotting. Healthl ine.com noted leech therapy can treat everything from cancer, arthritis, hemorrhoids, high blood pressure to heart disease. These bizarre coincidences are hard to believe.
What was the tapeworm diet?
Ladies in desperation of the perfect body would consume a tapeworm egg pill in hopes the creature would thrive in her intestines. Ultimately, one could eat until satisfied, while the worm would gobble up the majority, leading to weight loss. Horrifyingly, the “diet” still exists today, with subjects seeking worms from shady clinics or websites. Dangerous symptoms accompany the risky practice, including malnutrition, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, infection, anemia, and fever.
What is bloodletting?
Bloodletting is the process of draining one’s blood, which became prominent around 460 to 370 BC., according to the British Columbia Medical Journal. Egyptians, Greeks, Arabs, Asians, and eventually Europeans used the method to balance what they believed to be the four major fluids of the human body—blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. An imbalance was thought to make a person ill; migraines and fever were among issues treated with draining blood out of a vein or artery. Bloodletting may have even claimed George Washington’s life in 1799, according to an article from History.com. It wasn’t long after when the practice was largely phased out.
What is golden liquid used for?
Smithsonian Magazine discusses its ancient use as laundry detergent and a tooth whitener. Tatiana Ayazo/Rd.com, shutterstock.
Why are maggots used in medicine?
Maggots. Since before the Civil War, maggots were used to treat infected wounds, because they will only eat dying tissue, while healthy tissue is preserved. The treatment is so effective, it is still found in modern medicine. In a time where antibiotics don’t always work, these little fly babies could save your life.
What did the Persians think of the cure for illness?
The Persians in particular thought that the way to cure these illnesses was to have a pure mind, body and soul. To do that you would need to commit good deeds and have good thoughts all the while you keep your hygiene adequate. The ancient Egyptians were the ones with the best treatments for this given time period.
What were the medical practices of medieval Europe?
Medieval Europe, along with it’s medicinal practices was overtaken by Christianity. That means more exorcisms, more chants, more torturing. During the Early Medieval Ages people still believed that the fluids (mentioned above) were the ones that caused mental illness, and in order to bring balance back to the body, patients were given laxatives, emetics, and were bled using cupping or leeches. A combination of black hellebore, clocynth and aloes was believed to cleanse one of melancholy, this concoction was called Hiera Logadii. Extracting blood was a common medical treatment, and any form of bleeding was used… this included extracting it from the forehead, tapping the hemorroidal veins or the head. The tobacco that was later imported from America was used to induce vomiting. A unique form of shock treatment was used during the medieval ages where the mentally ill would be thrown into cold waters so that the shock would “bring them to their senses”.
Why were the mentally ill abused?
Even though the mentally ill were left in the custody of their family, they were widely abused, particularly in the territories where Christianity ruled. Abuse such as beatings, torture and exile were common, this was due to the stigma and shame attached to these types of illnesses. Many locked away their struggling family members in cellars, or locked them away in a cage under the control of servants. Others were left to find their way in the world alone.
Why were beatings used?
Beatings were commonly administered in hopes that the physical punishment would “teach” one out of his illness.
Why did the ill of the world lean towards abusive behaviour?
The way the ill were treated varied from place to place, but most would lean towards abusive behaviour, mostly because of family pride.
What is the treatment for a cursed skull called?
Mystic treatments where used to aid the “cursed” but most of the time these treatments were brutal. One of those brutal procedures was called “Trephining ”, where one would be treated by receiving a hole in their skull (or trephine) so that the evil spirits can leave their head. This was done with stone tools.
What is bloodletting used for?
Bloodletting being used as a cure for mental illness. One of the more infamous medieval mental hospitals is “Saint Mary of Bethlehem”. Later, this hospital would receive the name Bedlam and after receiving more and more people it became more and more notorious for it’s hellish conditions.
What was the first thing people used to cure ailments?
Several thousand years ago, people knew how to use frankincense to cure several ailments. It was also one of the commodities that fueled the Incense Route . Ancient physicians found that frankincense had antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic properties, and therefore prescribed it as a cure for a variety of ailments, including indigestion, cough, and halitosis (bad breath).
How long does it take to cure TB?
TB usually takes up to six months to treat and this is one of the main reasons the disease is so hard to get under control. However the use of the ancient herb could be key to shortening the course of therapy because it can clear out the dormant, hard-to-kill bacteria.
What is the best medicine for malaria?
A centuries-old herbal medicine discovered by Chinese scientists to cure malaria could also aid in tuberculosis treatment and even slow drug resistance. Artemisinin stops the ability of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis becoming dormant, a stage of the disease that often makes the use of antibiotics ineffective. Artemisinin is isolated from the plant Artemisia annua, sweet wormwood, an herb employed in traditional Chinese medicine .
Where did maggots come from?
The use of maggots in medical treatments was developed independently around the world over the last 1000 years by several ancient cultures, for example: the Hill people of Northern Myanmar (Burma) and the Mayan healers of Central America, and, the aboriginal Ngemba tribe of New South Wales in Australia.
Is the antibiotic pipeline stalled?
But progress in finding new antibiotics is slow. The drug discovery pipeline is currently stalled. However the answers to the antibiotic crisis could be found in medical history.
Is new science better than old science?
With innovations appearing in our lives seemingly every day it seems that new breakthroughs in science are the only ones we trust. New is always considered better. With this prevalent thinking those who espouse the wisdom of the ancients are ignored and perhaps even ridiculed – right up until the point when modern science backs them up. Sometimes looking to ancient knowledge as a source and then checking with modern science can yield useful results.
What did ancient doctors believe about the mentally ill?
Thousands of years ago, having no knowledge of things like brain chemistry, ancient doctors (a loose definition, for lack of a better term) believed that the mentally ill were possessed by demons hanging around in our heads.
Why did Erasmus use rotational therapy?
Benjamin Rush, one of America’s Founding Fathers and signatory to the Declaration of Independence, adopted his rotational therapy for the purposes of curing mental illness.
What was Walter Freeman's technique?
His technique was to insert an ice pick into the eye socket and swirl it around a bit to “disable” the frontal lobe. Unsterile equipment and imprecise surgical technique aside, there was a problem that soon became apparent as the number of lobotomies multiplied. Quite a number of the patients weren’t cured; in fact, they became virtual zombies, unresponsive and brain-damaged for life. This making for fairly bad testimonial, the lobotomy faded into medical obscurity.
What is the best cure for mental illness?
8. Lobotomy. And finally, we have everybody’s favorite mental illness cure, the lobotomy. The lobotomy was developed by a Portuguese neurosurgeon named Egas Moniz. He had heard that when the frontal lobe of a violent, feces-throwing monkey was cut away, the monkey became docile and quit slinging the shit.
What is the practice of trepanation?
Trepanation is boring a hole in your skull. As far back as the Neolithic era, some 7000 years ago, and as recently as today for a small number of strange and misguided folks, the practice of trepanation has been used to “cure” mental illness.
How to calm down a wayward uterus?
In order to calm down the wayward uterus, patients were required to inhale foul-smelling substances that would drive away the uterus from wherever it was kicking up a storm in the body. Of course, the real cure for female mental illness was to get the uterus settled in doing what it was there for.
What did psychiatrists use to treat mental illness?
In the early 20th century, psychiatrists used a variety of water treatments to treat patients with mental disorders. Some were harmless enough, like warm baths or an invigorating shower. Some treatments, however, bordered on Cheney-esque waterboarding.
What was the idea of mental illness in medieval times?
Medieval ideas about mental illness were almost as bewildering an assortment as our own, but a unifying theme was supplied by the cognitive theory outlined here. It was generally believed that the normal waking person’s activities were under the control of the mind. In cases of insanity this control was disrupted or corrupted and behavior would then, like an animal’s, be simply determined by the inner senses and the appetites. Consequently, in later medieval legal theory and practice, and in the writings of theologians, the insane were not held accountable for their actions.
What were the treatments for mental illness?
Treatments for mental disorder were quite diverse. Some were theoretically based: bloodletting, baths, head surgery, or a diet change to rid oneself of noxious humors: sexual diversion to aid the lovesick: exorcism and Holy Communion to aid the possessed. Others were not: music, pleasant scenes, prayer, and religious relics were thought to be beneficial regardless of the diagnosis (which was often tentatively held in any case). Records of the illnesses of the painter Hugo van der Goes (c. 1435-.1482 CE) and the French King Charles VI (1368-1422 CE) portray well-meaning onlookers suggesting a variety of diagnoses and remedies, none of them very successful. An instance of the solicitude shown Charles during his periods of illness was his court’s procurement of a mistress, Odette de Champ-divers, when the king refused to recognize his wife.
What was the mental illness of the Middle Ages?
Western European accounts from the early part of the Middle Ages often blamed mental disorder, especially where the symptoms resembled those of epilepsy, on demons, an attribution that has precedents in the New Testament. In the Islamic tradition and in the later Middle Ages in Christian Europe, mental disorder was less widely attributed ...
Who first proposed the humors theory?
Probably the most influential medical account of mental illness stemmed from the humors theory originally proposed by Hippocrates, and widely elaborated by ancient and Islamic physicians. Mental disorder was thought to result from either an imbalance, or more usually an abnormality, in one of the four humors believed to be important in determining ...
Was head surgery dangerous in medieval times?
Some medieval treatments must have been painful, and head surgery was probably dangerous. Moreover, the long-term mentally ill, especially those without substantial means, seem to have been low on priority lists for institutional care. However, neither painful treatment nor frequent neglect seems to have been motivated by a desire to punish either the patient or any demon thought to possess him or her. The idea that people possessed by a demon could be cured by torturing them or burning them at the stake would have seemed to a medieval clergyman quite as bizarre as it does to us.
Did the insane have to be held accountable?
Consequently, in later medieval legal theory and practice, and in the writings of theologians, the insane were not held accountable for their actions. At least in the later Middle Ages, the normal causes of disruption were believed to be physiological or environmental.
Is possession a medical theory?
The demon ological and medical theories were not mutually exclusive. Religious writers describing cases they ascribed to possession sometimes reveal a fair knowledge of medieval medical theory. Moreover, it was often held that demons took advantage of an existing constitutional weakness, such as a tendency toward melancholy, in selecting their victims. Finally, possession too was believed to feature the disruption of the mind’s normal control over behavior and its usurpation by a demon.
Section Learning Objectives
1. Prehistoric and Ancient Beliefs
- Prehistoric cultures often held a supernatural view of abnormal behavior and saw it as the work of evil spirits, demons, gods, or witches who took control of the person. This form of demonic possession was believed to occur when the person engaged in behavior contrary to the religious teachings of the time. Treatment by cave dwellers included a tec...
2. Greco-Roman Thought
- Rejecting the idea of demonic possession, Greek physician, Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.), said that mental disorders were akin to physical disorders and had natural causes. Specifically, he suggested that they arose from brain pathology, or head trauma/brain dysfunction or disease, and were also affected by heredity. Hippocrates classified mental disorders into three main categori…
3. The Middle Ages – 500 Ad to 1500 Ad
- The progress made during the time of the Greeks and Romans was quickly reversed during the Middle Ages with the increase in power of the Church and the fall of the Roman Empire. Mental illness was yet again explained as possession by the Devil and methods such as exorcism, flogging, prayer, the touching of relics, chanting, visiting holy sites, and holy water were used to r…
4. The Renaissance – 14th to 16th Centuries
- The most noteworthy development in the realm of philosophy during the Renaissance was the rise of humanism, or the worldview that emphasizes human welfare and the uniqueness of the individual. This helped continue the decline of supernatural views of mental illness. In the mid to late 1500s, Johann Weyer (1515-1588), a German physician, published his book, On the Deceits …
5. Reform Movement – 18th to 19th Centuries
- The rise of the moral treatment movementoccurred in Europe in the late 18th century and then in the United States in the early 19th century. Its earliest proponent was Phillipe Pinel (1745-1826) who was assigned as the superintendent of la Bicetre, a hospital for mentally ill men in Paris. He emphasized the importance of affording the mentally ill respect, moral guidance, and humane tr…
6. 20th – 21st Centuries
- The decline of the moral treatment approach in the late 19th century led to the rise of two competing perspectives – the biological or somatogenic perspective and the psychological or psychogenic perspective.
Chapter Recap
- In Chapter 1, we undertook a fairly lengthy discussion of what abnormal behavior is by first looking at what normal behavior is. What emerged was a general set of guidelines focused on mental disorders as causing dysfunction, distress, deviance, and at times, being dangerous for the afflicted and others around him/her. We acknowledged that mental illness is stigmatized in our …
Ancient Views
Greek and Roman Views
The Views of The Middle Ages
The Renaissance and The Birth of Asylums
- In the early Renaissance, cultural and scientific activity bloomed. Individuals with mental disorders improved at home while their families were aided financially by the local parish. Religious shrines were devoted to the humane and loving treatment of people with mental disorders that were visited by people from miles away to gain psychic healing....
The Nineteenth Century
Early 20th Century
Current Treatments
Comments