Counseling and Mental Illnesses

Hippocrates was the first to recognize that mental illness was due to ‘disturbed physiology’ as opposed to ‘displeasure of the gods or evidence of demonic possession’. It was not until about one thousand years later that the first place designated for the mentally ill came to be in 15th century Spain. Before the 15th century, it was largely up to individual’s families to care for them. By the 17th century, society was ‘often housing them with handicapped people, vagrants, and delinquents. Those considered insane are increasingly treated inhumanely, often chained to walls and kept in dungeons’. There are great strides for the medical treatments for the mentally

After people began to see the horrors of the mental asylums, the ideas of how to care for the mentally ill had to change. As treatments improved to pharmaceuticals and other methods, the common names of disorders began to emerge. Disorders such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia came to be public knowledge. The idea that the problem of mental illness had an actual reason caused others to realize other than supernatural reasons were realized for a reason why all of the people who had mentally disorders were considered crazy. Many neurobiologists have found that these mental illnesses came from a mix of reasons like chemical imbalances, life experiences, the environment the fetus lived in, or inherited traits. From the 1800’s to the present day, many people did not, and still do not, go to the proper places to

Mental illnesses are generally characterized by changes in mood, thought, or behavior. They can make daily activities difficult and impair a person’s ability to work, interact with family, and fulfill other major life functions (SAMHSA, 2015). Contemplated early on in history, treatments for mental illness looked to cure the reflections of the anger of gods, demonic possession, sorcery, the evil eye, or an angry deity, responded with equally mystical, and brutal treatments (Nash, 2007). Attempts to treat mental illness date back as early as 5000 BCE as verified by the discovery of trephined skulls in regions of ancient world cultures (Porter, 2002, p. 10). Only a few realized that individuals with mental illness should be treated humanely rather than exorcised, punished, or banished. Psychiatry has come a long way since the days patients were shunned from society and shackled in asylums. Experiments and techniques for treating mental illness from ancient times to the turn of the 20th century have paved the way for the treatment plans used today.

The roots of mental illnesses can even be traced all back to Ancient Greece in 400 B.C. where people were believed to have been cursed by the gods when their minds were plagued by these things.

Mental illness has been around since the beginning of recorded history. Mental illness was not recognized and those suffering were labeled as retarded. “Terms

400 B.C. marks Hippocrates, a Greek physician, treating mental disorders as conditions rather than curses from gods. From then and through the middle ages, the mentally ill are cared for by family and are relatively free from constraint. It isn’t until 1407 that the first institution specifically for the mentally ill is established (Timeline: Treatments). Crude methods are used within these years to treat the mentally ill throughout these years, such as trephination, purging, and mystic rituals (Vann, Madeline R). Trephination, also called trepanation, is one of the earliest forms of treatment, going back 7,000 years and involves forming a hole in the skull in hopes of “relieving headaches, mental illness, or presumed demonic possession” (Vann, Madeline R). Purging or ‘fixing humors’, is traced back to the ancient Greeks and is the balancing of

Throughout the counseling program for clinical mental health in Edinboro University, students will be required to take a course called group processes. In group processes, students will learn the necessary skills and knowledge of counseling in a group setting as a group facilitator. The course will focus on many topics such as 1) personal qualities. 2) world view. 3) beliefs. 4) values. 5) attitudes. 6) multicultural competencies. 7) students’ personal goals. 8) countertransference issues. 9) strengths and weaknesses. And 10) what students’ have learned throughout the assignments and experiences.

The understanding of mental illness in society has come a long way since before Christ’s time. In the past mental illness was thought of as demonic possessions and or religious penance (Foerschner, 2010). It was Hippocrates who began to treat mental illness as a disorder and not a supernatural phenomenon (PBS, 2015). Yet, treatment of people with mental disorders in the past was not done in a humanistic manner though asylums or mental health facilities were built in order to provide care for them. These facilities gave way for developing frowned upon psychiatric treatments such as lobotomies and shock therapies which further disabled cognitive control (Freeman, 2015). Mental disorders at the time were associated with terms like lunacy, melancholies and hysteria but with time these disorders have been studied and categorized to broader groupings such as but not limited to Major Depression Disorders, Autism, Schizophrenia, Substance –Related and Addictive Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, and Personality Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

For example, someone who was too temperamental suffered from too much blood and thus blood-letting would be the necessary treatment. Psychogenic relates to traumatic or stressful experiences, maladaptive learned associations and cognitions, or distorted perceptions. The etiological theories determine the care and treatment the mentally ill receive. Though the Greek physician Galen (AD 130-201) rejected the notion of a wandering uterus, he agreed with the theory of an imbalance of the humors causing mental illness. Galen also opened the door for psychogenic explanations, however, by allowing the experience of psychological stress as a potential cause of abnormality. These theories were ignored for centuries as physicians attributed mental illness to physical causes throughout the most of the millennium. Beginning in the 13th century, mentally ill women were to be

In Ancient Greece, the mentally ill were cared for at home by family members. The government was not responsible for their care. Around 400 BC, Hippocrates attempted to separate superstitions and religion from medicine by confirming the belief that a deficiency in one of the four essential bodily fluids were responsible for physical and mental illnesses. The essential fluids were blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Hippocrates classified mental illnesses into four categories: epilepsy, mania, melancholia, and brain fever. Like other physicians and philosophers of his time, he believed that there was no shame in having a mental illness or that mentally ill people should be responsible for their actions. Between the 11th and 15th centuries,

For hundreds of years, people have tried to understand the causes and treatments of people who display abnormal behavior. The most popular belief in the Medieval times was the idea that supernatural forces, such as demons and evil spirits, were the cause of people with abnormal behavior (Nevid). Thus, their treatment of this was often brutal, involving trephination and exorcisms. Although this belief was common at the time, the ancient Greeks did not hold to this belief. Hippocrates theorized that abnormal behaviors were due to illness of the body, and that the body’s humors determined ones behavior (Nevid). The belief that abnormal behavior is due to illness in the body is most similar to the modern medical model. In the late 15th and early

Another Greek physician suggested that depression was caused by the imbalance of bodily fluids, thus recommended

The ancient Greeks viewed mental illness as having derived from the gods (Griffith 625; Ludwig 4; Neihart; Weisberg 361). According to them, different forms of madness provoked various types

Starting from the day that we come into the world, we begin to develop personal “pieces” of a puzzle and as we grow we try as we might to “fit” these pieces into our own individual and unique puzzle. As this time progresses, we sometimes find that some of the pieces will “fit,” but we also find at times that no matter how hard we try, some pieces never “fit,”, even when we try to force them in place. In fact, some people say that when we try to force these pieces into the puzzle, it can result in a challenge(s) that can last a very long time unless we seek someone who can help us fit these pieces into the puzzle instead of trying to place by ourselves.

Historians who have examined the unearthed bones, artwork and other remnants of ancient societies have validated that these societies regarded abnormal behavior as the work of evil spirits. People of prehistoric societies believed that all events around and within them the results of the actions of magical, sometimes sinister, beings who controlled the world. In particular they viewed the human body and mind as a battleground between external forces of good and evil. Abnormal behavior was interpreted as a victory by evil spirits and the cure for such behaviors was to force the demon out of the body through exorcism. During the 5th and 3rd centuries B.C.E., the Greeks changed the way that psychological disorders were viewed. The philosopher