Is mental illness a supernatural disease?
A standard belief across many of those ancient cultures was that mental illness was seen as a supernatural in origin, usually the result of an angry god (or goddess).
What is the history of mental illness treatment?
The history of treating mental illnesses dates as far back as 5000 B.C.E. with the evidence of “trephined skulls.” In the ancient world cultures, a well-known belief was that mental illness was “the result of supernatural phenomena”; this included phenomena from “demonic possession” to “sorcery” and “the evil eye”.
What was the cause of mental illness in ancient times?
Ancient theories about mental illness were often the result of beliefs that supernatural causes, such as demonic possession, curses, sorcery, or a vengeful god, were behind the strange symptoms. Remedies, therefore, ran the gamut from the mystical to the brutal.
Is disability caused by demons or ghosts?
The person with a disability was sometimes described as having been placed under or on a seat for demons or ghosts. Explanations not only defined the external, supernatural force in disability causation, but also identified concomitant physical symptoms and financial gains.
What cultural narratives shape local understanding of disability?
Cultural narratives on disability have received much attention over the past few decades. In contexts of poverty, limited information and everyday challenges associated with having, or caring for someone with a disability, different understandings have emerged. A project was set up to promote disability awareness in neighborhood communities in a rural part of Kenya, using a process of reflection and education. This paper reports on the first aspect–reflection. The aim was to investigate local understanding of disability as a co-constructed concept. The research questions were: 1. What cultural beliefs shape local understanding of disability? 2. What challenges are perceived to be associated with disability? A phenomenological approach was adopted. Focus group discussions were conducted with twenty-one community groups involving 263 participants and audio-recorded. The data were transcribed and thematic analysis was carried out. Visual maps were created to illustrate any interconnections, before establishing the final conclusions. Local beliefs attributed disability to: human transgression of social conventions, particularly concerning inappropriate family relations, which invoked a curse; supernatural forces affecting the child; the will of God; unexplained events; and biomedical factors. Challenges associated with disability related to the burden of caregiving and perceived barriers to inclusion, with stress as a shared bi-product. Local understanding of disability in this rural part of Kenya demonstrated overlapping explanations and plurality of beliefs. Two possible interpretations are offered. Firstly, oscillation between explanatory lines demonstrated instability, affecting broader acceptance of disability. Secondly, and more positively, in the face of challenges, the desire to make sense of the existing situation, reflected a healthy pluralism.
What is biological attribution?
As well as accounting for the ‘unexplained’, Biological attribution defined tangible events or biomedical circumstances that were likely responsible for an individual’s condition. It was expressed in three key areas as illustrated in Fig 1: ‘Pre-natal’; ‘Peri-natal’; ‘Post-natal’.
What is the attribution of oneself in Giriama culture?
More than any other perceived cause of childhood disability, attribution to Oneself was supported by the local Giriama culture. The parents, often the mother, were implicated. This was expressed as ‘Inappropriate relations’ or what was referred to as “mixing in the family”, which appeared to be connected closely to family/community values and the flouting of social conventions:
What is Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory?
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory defined humans as both a ‘culture-producing species’ and ‘culture produced’ (p.123) [ 6 ]. Hence communal narratives, developed in response to the circumstances of disability, may also affect social behaviours and practices.
What are communal narratives?
Communal narratives have emerged to explain the presence of disability. Underpinned by cultural belief systems [ 4 ], such explanations affect, not only the ways individuals with disabilities view themselves, but also the responses of others [ 5 ].
What studies were excluded from meta-analysis?
All the meta-analysis and meta-synthesis studies were also excluded. Studies using ethnography and grounded theory methodology were excluded as the current synthesis focused on those studies in which beliefs and perceptions of people regarding mental health issues were explored. Procedure and synthesis of themes.
What are the limitations of a mental health study?
Limitations. The main limitation was exclusion of quantitative studies on mental health beliefs and those studies that are not published or are ongoing. An important limitation is the exclusion of articles fulfilling the criteria of the study but not available in English (no translation service was available).
What was the only asylum for the mentally ill?
When Henry VIII dissolved the religious orders, he seized the Bethlem Hospital in London, England's only asylum for the mentally ill. However, shortly before he died in 1547 he transferred its control to the Corporation of London. It then became a civic rather than a religious institution.
What did Napier do to help people with mental illness?
Using religious, psychological, astrological and traditional healing remedies, Napier treated them all using a wide range of treatments.. Responses to mental illness at this time included everything from listening and humane intervention to incarceration in a building or ill treatment.
When was Bethlem's first medical keeper appointed?
This section looks at how the appointment of the Bethlem's first medical 'keeper' in 1619 reflected society's growing view that mental illness was a medical matter rather than a supernatural event, despite the continued popularity of traditional treatments.
Who was the first medical keeper in Bethlem?
The Bethlem's first medical 'keeper'. In 1619, Helkiah Crooke became the Bethlem's first medically qualified 'keeper'. He was a controversial character who had accused the previous keeper of irregularities and who was constantly at odds with the Royal College of Physicians.
Who instructed the Court of Wards to hand over responsibility for their affairs to someone else?
In the eyes of the law, mentally ill people lacked the capacity to reason, so a Court of Wards would hand the responsibility for their affairs to someone else. King James I (1603-1625) instructed the court that 'lunatics be freely committed to their best and nearest friends, that can receive no benefit by their death.'.
Is mental illness a supernatural event?
Mental illness could be seen as both a natural and a supernatural event - a sickness or something caused by devils or astronomical events. People had no difficulty accepting both these explanations at the same time.
Who tried to convince people that witches were actually women with mental illnesses?
Johann Weyer and Reginald Scot tried to convince people in the mid- to late-16th century that accused witches were actually women with mental illnesses and that mental illness was not due to demonic possession but to faulty metabolism and disease, but the Church’s Inquisition banned both of their writings.
Who developed the therapeutic procedure of reliving traumatic events?
A therapeutic procedure introduced by Breuer and developed further by Freud in the late 19th century whereby a patient gains insight and emotional relief from recalling and reliving traumatic events.
What is Philippe Pinel's philosophy?
A therapeutic regimen of improved nutrition, living conditions, and rewards for productive behavior that has been attributed to Philippe Pinel during the French Revolution , when he released mentally ill patients from their restraints and treated them with compassion and dignity rather than with contempt and denigration.
What are the three theories of mental illness?
Throughout history there have been three general theories of the etiology of mental illness: supernatural, somatogenic, and psychogenic. Supernatural theories attribute mental illness to possession by evil or demonic spirits, displeasure of gods, eclipses, planetary gravitation, curses, and sin. Somatogenic theories identify disturbances in ...
What is the DSM-III?
The DSM has undergone various revisions (in 1968, 1980, 1987, 1994, 2000, 2013), and it is the 1980 DSM-III version that began a multiaxial classification system that took into account the entire individual rather than just the specific problem behavior.
Why was instilling fear important?
As such, instilling fear was believed to be the best way to restore a disordered mind to reason. By the 18th century, protests rose over the conditions under which the mentally ill lived, and the 18th and 19th centuries saw the growth of a more humanitarian view of mental illness.
Where did the term "hypnotism" come from?
Derived from Franz Anton Mesmer in the late 18th century, an early version of hypnotism in which Mesmer claimed that hysterical symptoms could be treated through animal magnetism emanating from Mesmer’s body and permeating the universe (and later through magnets); later explained in terms of high suggestibility in individuals.
Impairment and Disability
Antiquity
- Prehistory
Individuals with physical impairments have been part of the social order since well before the evolution of humans. There is also anthropological evidence of impaired members living in prehistoric subhuman primate groups. Berkson (1974, 1993) argues persuasively that monkey a… - The Old Testament
Documentation of the treatment and life experiences of people with impairments during the earliest periods of recorded history is extremely limited. Edicts about disability offer some insight into prevailing attitudes, but the messages that they convey are mixed. The Old Testament com…
Middle Ages
- In the fourth to sixth centuries A.C.E., monastically inspired hospices for blind persons were established in what is now Turkey, Syria, and France. These hospices were organized as refuges for people with disabilities within existing religious enclaves (Winzer 1993). Bishop Nicholas cared for persons with intellectual disabilities in a hospice in southern Turkey during the fourth century…
Early Modern Period Through The Eighteenth Century
- Renaissance and the Scientific Method
In the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, beginning primarily in Italy, humanism in art was accompanied by advances in the anatomical and physiological study of hearing, vision, and the human body by Versalius, da Vinci, William Harvey, and others (P. Edwards 1996). In the mid-sixt… - Poverty and Disability
A profound change in attitudes toward poverty occurred across Europe during the thirteenth through seventeenth centuries that would have an impact on people with disabilities. Poverty traditionally had been associated with followers of Jesus in the Christian European countries, an…
The Nineteenth Century
- Educational Developments
Residential schools for deaf and blind students grew rapidly during the nineteenth century, as did institutionalized segregation of people with mental illness and intellectual disability. Therapeutic advances occurred for people with speech impairments, and controversy developed regarding t… - First North American Mental Hospitals and Residential Schools
The first mental hospital established on the North and South American continents was opened in Mexico City two centuries before similar initiatives were undertaken in the United States and Canada. San Hipólito Hospital was established in 1566 near San Hipólito Chapel in Mexico City …
The Twentieth Century
- Segregation and Expansion of the Institutional Model
At the opening of the twentieth century, the eugenics era was gaining momentum, and social reformers sought segregation and prohibitions on marriage and procreation by people with disabilities. Conditions in facilities for people with mental disabilities were deteriorating, and dea… - Developments for Persons with Physical Disabilities
Religious charity, as has been previously discussed, had been part of the landscape of support provided to people with disabilities and the poor for centuries. However, numerous secular charitable societies organized in the United States during the period between the 1840s and the …
Conclusion
- After the seventeenth century, medical science and the rise of custodial residential institutions undermined the self-determination of people with disabilities during a period of rapid and continuous urbanization and industrialization in the West. It did this by over medicalizing what was, in large measure, a social, educational, and economic problem, separating many disabled p…