What do you think you know about mental illness?

IFAPerspective of Mental

Health: The Past

In the past were known as an affliction that invaded a person’s mindLabels such as witches, evildoers, and lunaticsWays of dealing with mental illness:

Rituals performed by shamans, magicians, and priestsPotions to rid the body of “evil” spirits that had

invaded the psycheExorcisms were carried out

Mental Illness

Screenshot from “Exorcism of Emily Rose”

Mentally ill were possessed and being punished by God for wrongdoing

Prayer and ceremonies used in attempt to cure possession

Trepanation-procedure whereby a hole is drilled in the head in an attempt to release evil spirits

Ancient Greeks

Trepanation

Hippocrates 400 BC

(Greek Physician)

Mental disorders

originated from

imbalance of four

body fluids: blood,

phlegm, yellow

bile, and black bile

Term melancholy – state of depression or sadness; derived from word elements: melan, meaning “black”, and chole, meaning “bile”

Witchcraft and demonic possessions were the cause of insanity

TreatmentPersecutionRestraining, StarvationBeatingDrowning

Middle Ages5th to 15th Century

Belief that movements of the moon and the stars caused madness

Terms lunacy and lunaticDerived from the Latin word luna, meaning

moon

Renaissancce

Abnormal behavior was thought to be demonic possession

Resolution: “dunking test” (ultimate no win test)If the individual drowned, he/she wasn’t

possessedIf the individual did not drown, he/she was in

allegiance with the devil and must be stone to death

Colonial Times

This is when the special institution were built to house the mentally illInsane asylums

Unsanitary living conditionsMentally ill subjected to public beatings

London’s St. Marys of Bethlehem asylumKnown as “Bedlam” meaning noisy, confusion,

uproar

1500’s

Restroom

Shower

Stairway

1700’s French physician Philippe PenelIntroduction of the concept of exercise, fresh

air, and cleaner environment for mentally ill1840’s Dorothea Dix, American schoolteacher

Persuaded state legislatures to provide state funds for improved mental institutions

1883 Emil Kraeplin, German psychiatristDeveloped system for diagnosing and

classifying mental illness

A Few Centuries…..

Emil Kraeplin

Dorothea Dix