1. A Short History of the Approach to Mental Illness
Ancient healers through Freud.

2. How ancients dealt with abnormal behavior:
*Rituals were performed by shamans, magicians, & priests
Potions were given to rid the body of “evil” spirits
Exorcisms were carried out

3. Trepanation
A procedure whereby a hole is drilled in skull to release the evil spirits.
Ancient skeletal remains with hole drilled in skull to “release evil spirits”.

4. Trepanation 90% survival rate.
Has been found in skulls all over the world
Has existed since ancient times
Still practiced today !
Ancient skeletal remains with hole drilled in skull to “release evil spirits”.

5. Ancient Greeks believed:
-Mentally ill were possessed & being punished by gods for wrongdoing
-Prayer could cure possession

6. Greek physician, Hippocrates
- Was the first to establish the brain as the seat of consciousness
believed that the origin of mental disorders was an issue in the brain
Advocated exercise and tranquility for healing
Painting of Hippocrates—as envisioned by Byzantine artist.

7. Middle Ages: Causes of mental illness included:
Supernatural causes such as demons
Witchcraft and sorcery
Mass hysteria
Melancholy and stress. .

8. Middle Ages & Renaissance--abnormal behavior was taken as evidence of devil’s work, and treatment was responsibility of church.
Abnormal behavior was evidence of devil’s work—treatment was responsibility of the church

9. Treatments for mental illness included:
- Exorcism.
- Shaving the pattern of a cross in the head-hair.
- Believe that those suffering from mental illness could benefit from hearing mass.
Drinking ice-cold water.
Do other things to make the demon uncomfortable and want to leave

10. Humorism was also believed at this time - human health is driven by four different bodily fluids known as humors
- Had to be in perfect balance.

11. The four humors were
A) Black bile Linked to melancholy (moody, anxious, sad)
B) Yellow bile Linked to phlegmatic (careful, peaceful, calm)
C) Phlegm
Linked to sanguine (sociable, talkative, outgoing)
– D) Blood
Linked to choleric (strong, aggressive, active)

12. The levels of these humors would fluctuate in the body, depending on what they ate, drank, inhaled, did
Humor imbalances caused physical and personality changes
Monasteries, which led medical research and practice in Medieval Europe had extensive herb gardens for the production of remedies - certain herbs were ascribed to a humor.
Believed that God would provide relief for every disease

13. Renaissance - a time when science flourished
Renaissance - a time when science flourished. - started to believe there were other reasons for mental illness beyond demonic possession - could be affected by the moon
The terms lunacy and luna, meaning moon, were derived during this time to label people who acted abnormal.

14. Renaissance - German physician, Johann Weyer (1515 – 1588 C. E
Renaissance - German physician, Johann Weyer (1515 – 1588 C.E.), was the first doctor to specialize in mental illness - considered to be the founder of modern psychopathology (the scientific study of mental disorders) - Hospitals to care for the mentally ill began to emerge at the end of the period.
The terms lunacy and luna, meaning moon, were derived during this time to label people who acted abnormal.

15. 1500s… - Some progress was made in England and Belgium to care for the sick - deteriorated by the mid-sixteenth century when asylums began to replace hospitals. - The first asylum was founded in Spain
The terms lunacy and luna, meaning moon, were derived during this time to label people who acted abnormal.

16. 1500s… - In London, 1547, Henry VIII opened Bethelehem Hospital - pronounced Bedlam by the locals - the word "Bedlam" started being used for lunatic asylums in general, and later for a scene of uproar and confusion.
The terms lunacy and luna, meaning moon, were derived during this time to label people who acted abnormal.

17. In colonial times (early 1800s), people who behaved abnormally were thought to be in league with the devil! Only a “dunking test” could resolve the allegation.

18. Dunking test. . .the ultimate no-win situation.
If the “possessed” woman did not drown, she was thought to be in league with the devil.
-In the dunking test, if the woman did not drown, she was thought to be in league with the devil--if she did drown, she was “innocent”.
Dunking test. . .the ultimate no-win situation.

19. -…a woman ‘in the horrid process of tearing off her skin by inches; her face, neck, and person,
were thus ‘disfigured to hideousness’
• ...a man confined in an outbuilding next to the ‘dead room,’ with corpses for his companions
• …people penned in cold, filthy sheds, without furnishings, daylight, or fresh air
• …people chained to the wall for so long that they resembled wild animals more than human
beings.”
This information was observed by Dorothea Dix
1840s

20. 1840s Dorthea Dix American Schoolteacher
-Campaigned for humane treatment of mentally disturbed for over 40 years
-Persuaded legislature to provide state funds for improvement of mental institutions

21. Many asylums had started out with good care and few patients
Overcrowded, underfunded, overwhelmed staff
After Civil War in the US, many soldiers admitted to asylums suffering PTSD
Conditions ultimately became atrocious
This information was observed by Dorothea Dix
Late 1800s

22. Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly was an investigative journalist in the late 1800s. She was looking for her big break and was approached by a New York newspaper to expose the terrible conditions in mental institutions So she feigned insanity to get the inside scoop on the Blackwell Island’s women’s insane asylum in New York.