Hippocrates's View Of Mental Illness

Once again things took for the worse during the Age of Enlightenment (18th and early 19th century) the thought process for depression was that of inheritance. Once again people with mental illness were rejected from society, which lead to them becoming poor and homeless and in some cases being institutionalised. It wasn’t until the later part of the Age of Enlightenment that doctors sought out to explain the causes of depression, which some doctors thought it was aggression that was at the core of it. The treatment suggested was a good diet, plenty of exercise and talking to someone about

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

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

Through the Middle Ages and until the establishment of asylums, treatments for mental illness were offered by “humanistic physicians, medical astrologers, apothecaries, and folk or traditional healers” (MacDonald 175). Aside from secular exorcisms, prayers, charms, amulets, and other mystical treatments were available. Sedatives during the 17th century consisted of opium grains to “ease the torment” of mental illness (MacDonald 190).

“It was believed that the body has four humors- Phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile. In a healthy person these were in balance, while illness was caused by too much or too little of one of them. ”(barber 5). Any type of illness was explained by the four humors. In that time period, they didn't know any other way to explain mental or physical illness, so they relied of thing are now proven wrong to explain them.

The first website I looked at is run by a licensed psychologist named Philip Hickey. His site claims to be “an alternative perspective on psychiatry 's so-called mental disorders.” He uses this site to criticize the APA and all psychiatric practices. This website doesn’t exactly present a pseudoscientific treatment or cure because Hickey believes that mental illnesses do not exist and therefore do not require treatment. I think that a licensed psychologist using his name and title to discredit everyone who works in the field of psychology and all of the people living with a mental illness is just as dangerous as a fake treatment for a disease.

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.

The History of treatment of depression is hard to link to a specific date. In the early years of treatment there was almost no distinction between mental disorders as compared to our knowledge of them now. Depression was not recognized as a unique problem and for that reason it didn’t receive unique treatment. Depression has been around as far as humans have, even before treatment was thought to even help patients. Depression has been a big part of mental health in the medical field. Depression now is categorized into a few different categories, while before it was more of a generalized disorder and was thought to be of only one kind. The way that we look at depression now is still under developed to the point that common knowledge of mental health is still low compared to how it should be at this point in time with our technology.Although our common knowledge of depression have greatly improved from what our knowledge of depression was in the 18th - 20th century, we still have a long way to go to reach a stable point in mental health. Many doctors have gone into the mental specialization field of medicine and have done many special and important contributions to the field. Research in the mental has come a long way and has improved to the point, were more morale is taken in account with cases. Treatment now is more developed and is a bit more complex then it was in the 17th – 20th century. Treatment in that time was more simple and straight to the point. Apart from it

The medical community of the 1950s and 60’s accepted a classification that divided depression into sub-types based on supposed causes of the disorder. This was influenced by the hundreds of years of back and forth debate as to whether depression was best thought of as a mental or physical problem, and by the increasing knowledge of the brain and brain chemistry. Depression that came from within the body and was caused by genetics or some other physical problem was dubbed as “Endogenous” Depression. People with endogenous depression were supposedly to view themselves as the source of their own suffering and to think that everything was their fault. Their emotional pain was thought to be unaffected by the attitudes or responses of the people

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,

Mental retardation was thought to be linked or the cause of sins perpetrated by the person or their family. Mad people were also sometimes thought to be possessed by demons. Though there is not a lot of talk about possession leading to mental illness in legal texts. Madness could permeate physically, and could be the result of heavenly or more frequently diabolical possession or an ill will. It also could be a test of God or punishing the proud or wicked. Charms, amulets, relics, and holy waters were used to try and keep away the onslaught of insanity. Sixteenth-century medicine and psychology was taken over by the theory that madness was rooted in the "melancholy humor,” which is black bile. Although it was not discussed in law much, madness as a result of sin or possession was a common belief during this

The History of Depression Philosophers, healers, and writers throughout the years have written historical documents which acknowledge the long-standing existence of depression as mental illness. In early times, it was initially called “melancholia”, described as a distinct disease with particular mental and physical symptoms. A look at literature suggests that the concepts of depression existed in Ancient Greece. Hippocrates, a famous philosopher who played an important role in the development of modern medicine, suggested that mental illnesses were caused by an imbalance of the four humours and an excess of black bile in the spleen in his Aphorisms. He used bloodletting, bathing, exercise, and dieting as a way to treat depression.

Hippocrates denied the theory that supernatural forces had an influence on mental illness and instead created the theory of humourism. This was probably in the time period that medical scientists tried to explain everything through science and denied anything that had to with religion. Hippocrates’ humoral theory stated that the body had four humors or fluids: phlegm (water), blood, black bile (from kidneys and spleen), yellow bile (choler from the liver) (“Humorism”). It was believed that optimal health could be achieved if there was a balance in these humors and any disease the person had, either mentally or physically, was caused by the imbalance of these humors (“Humorism”). The humoral theory made sense theoretically because these fluids were essential to the human body in order for it to fully operate. In the fashion of treating mental illness gruesomely, the cure of the imbalance of the four humors was through the process of bloodletting. Bloodletting was the process of slicing and opening a vein with a lancet and allowing the blood to flow out into a bucket (Cohen). Bloodletting could also be considered the earliest form of donating blood albeit in a more painful

In 1621, Robert Burton, English scholar, published the Anatomy of Melancholy, in which he described the psychological and social causes of melancholia. As of previous treatments, he recommended activities such as dieting, exercising, distraction, travelling, purgative, bloodletting, herbal remedies, marriage, and music therapy in his encyclopedic

Early-on specifically during the Middle Ages, mental illness was believed by many as demonic possession and religious’ punishment. Some trailblazers sought to cure mentally ill individuals by conducting non- religious techniques, and instead incorporating a change in environment, or even administering certain substances/medications that where heavily used during that time; that were thought of as medical treatment. The