A History of the Treatment of Insanity Essays

In early American history, individuals with mental illnesses have been neglected and suffered inhuman treatments. Some were beaten, lobotomized, sterilized, restrained, in addition to other kinds of abuse. Mental illness was thought to be the cause of supernatural dreadful curse from the Gods or a demonic possession. Trepanning (the opening of the skull) is the earliest known treatment for individuals with mental illness. This practice was believed to release evil spirits (Kemp, 2007). Laws were passed giving power to take custody over the mentally ill including selling their possessions and properties and be imprisoned (Kofman, 2012). The first psychiatric hospital in the U.S. was the Pennsylvania Hospital where mentally ill patients were left in cold basements because they were considered not affected by cold or hot environments and restraint with iron shackles. They were put on display like zoo animals to the public for sell by the doctors (Kofmen, 2012). These individuals were punished and isolated and kept far out of the eyes of society, hidden as if they did not exist. They were either maintained by living with their families and considered a source of embarrassment or institutionalized

The first colonists blamed mental illness on witchcraft and demonic possession. The mentally ill were often imprisoned or sent to poorhouses. If they didn’t go to one of those they were left untreated at their home. Conditions in the prisons were awful. In 1841, a lady named Dorothea Dix volunteered to teach a Sunday-school class for the female inmates. She was outraged with the conditions of the prisons that she witnessed. Dix then went on to be a renowned advocate for the mentally ill. She urged more humane treatment-based care than what was given to the mentally ill in the prisons. In 1847, she urged that the Illinois legislature to provide an appropriate

Overall, Conditions in asylums today are drastically different than asylums in the 1800s due to the better understanding of mental illnesses. As time goes on and technology advances, society will continue to advance in it’s knowledge of mental

brain, or sending patients to institutions, doctor prescribed pills to try and treat mental conditions. In addition mental health patients were no longer being institutionalized due to the poor conditions in mental institutions (History of Mental Illness”)

The mood shifted from hiding the mentally ill to curing the mentally ill. The definition of mentally ill was expanded to include anyone in the family that was unable to help the family in terms of survival and drained their family of money and resources: the aged, the epileptic, and the imbecilic. This caused massive overcrowding. The mentally ill were hidden from the public view along with the elderly and others suffering from debilitating disorders resulting in massive overcrowding of asylums which meant illnesses were not being treated in lieu of managing the ever expanding population.

Wright, D. (1997). Getting out of the asylum: understanding the confinement of the insane in the nineteenth century. Social History of Medicine, 10, 13

The mentally ill were cared for at home by their families until the state recognized that it was a problem that was not going to go away. In response, the state built asylums. These asylums were horrendous; people were chained in basements and treated with cruelty. Though it was the asylums that were to blame for the inhumane treatment of the patients, it was perceived that the mentally ill were untamed crazy beasts that needed to be isolated and dealt with accordingly. In the opinion of the average citizen, the mentally ill only had themselves to blame (Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, 1999). Unfortunately, that view has haunted society and left a lasting impression on the minds of Americans. In the era of "moral treatment", that view was repetitively attempted to be altered. Asylums became "mental hospitals" in hope of driving away the stigma yet nothing really changed. They still were built for the untreatable chronic patients and due to the extensive stay and seemingly failed treatments of many of the patients, the rest of the society believed that once you went away, you were gone for good. Then the era of "mental hygiene" began late in the nineteenth century. This combined new concepts of public health, scientific medicine, and social awareness. Yet despite these advancements, another change had to be made. The era was called "community mental health" and

(Asokan) When the someone’s mind become so distorted that they could not could not understand the crime they have committed, they would be declared insanity and not be held accountable for the crime they have committed. A mental disease alone is not enough to get the insanity defense to work. There must be proof of the mental disease manifesting itself so much that it affects the mind, emotions, and behavior. The actual term “insanity or insane” is not a medical term. It is more of a legal term to describe the state someone was in when involved in a crime. Justice Tracy, a 13th century judge in King Edward’s court, first formulated the foundation of an insanity defense when he instructed the jury that it must acquit by reason of insanity. (Asokan) With the Wild Beast Test as the first test to determine if someone was declared insane, the jury were left to determine if the person on trial understood their actions no better than a baby or a wild beast. If someone were ever found to meet this limitation, they would never be accountable for what they have done. As time progressed the case of R vs Madfield came about. In this case the Good and Evil Test was created. Instead of the traditional “wild

Although cases of mental illnesses ascribed to demonic possession may have been more wide spread in the Middle Ages and renaissance than they are today, they were a minority of all cases of mental illness. For example a Franciscan monk who was an influential medieval writer on medicine, discussed mental illness in physical and environmental terms: indeed he makes no mention at all of demonic possession (Kemp 5). From the thirteenth century until today, there are legal records concerning insanity. The court of Wards and Liverie, was concerned to determine the sanity of property holders (Kemp 5).

Through the course of time, mental illnesses have always been in existence due to varying factors and causes. However, as time has passed, the perceptions and available treatments for mental illnesses have also changed as new technology was developed. By looking at the treatments and perceptions of mental illnesses in the early 20th century, we can learn how to properly treat and diagnose not only mental disorders but also other conditions as well as show us the importance of review boards and controlled clinical trials.

This one swung the mentally ill person around while he/she was in a harness. This treatment supposedly ‘calmed the nerves’.” (Gray). Needless to say the treatment of the insane was horrid and unbelievable. In the eighteenth century at Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, the public could pay a penny for a privilege to watch the “freaks”; they could poke the caged patients with a long stick (Taylor).

The Mentally ill were a quiet but present existence in Medieval society. The Mentally disabled were treated with leniency in courts and law codes. This is due to a perceived lack of understanding between right and wrong, and also that they are already punished enough by their illness. In this paper, the reason and background of the Medieval origins of the insanity defense will be discussed. Legal Terminology of Differentiating between insanity and mental retardation was important in medieval law codes.

Today’s society has a vastly different understanding of schizophrenia than the people of the Elizabethan era. Throughout the seventeenth century civilization had minimal knowledge of mental health. As a result, all diagnosis’s, therapies and treatments concocted during that period are considered pre-scientific to modern psychology. In the light of humanity's lack of comprehension people who suffered from schizophrenia were accused of witchcraft and in effect tortured or murdered. In A Noble Insanity, Peckham explains the indicted “…were indeed sufferers of a variety of mental disorders, including senile dementia, compulsive anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia.”

During the mid-1800’s the mentally ill were either homeless or locked in a cell under deplorable conditions. Introduction of asylums was a way to get the mentally ill better care and better- living conditions. Over a period of years, the admissions grew, but staff to take care of their needs did not. Asylums became overcrowded and treatments that were thought to cure, were basically medieval and unethical

In the Colonial Era, people who were mentally ill were either cared for at home if family was well off, whereas if the person was poor or lacked family, then they were boarded out of another home, placed in an empty attic, cellar, almshouses, jail, or in a shack.