Mental Illness : Are They Noticed?

Throughout the Great Depression, there were great strides in discovering the science behind mental illness and the treatment of the mentally ill. Scientists tried many new treatments to help people with mental illnesses. Early in the 1900s researchers started to explore what caused a person to become mentally ill. In this time period, Sigmund Freud “developed a number of theories that attempted to explain unusual behavior” (“Mental Health Treatment”). People with mental illnesses were treated more like equivalents as opposed to inferiors starting in the early 20th century. Mental hospitals, formerly called asylums started to have specialist doctors and nurses to treat mental and physical disabilities. (Warwick). The villa system was introduced to mental hospitals in the early 1900s. This was a system in which several buildings were used to keep and treat patients rather than one large building to help individualize treatments (Warwick). Later, scientists tried using lithium and antipsychotic drugs to treat mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and to some extent had success. (“Mental Health Treatment”). The few people who sought treatment in mental facilities had a chance to be cured and treated for their diseases because of new scientific developments (Roosevelt).

Part one spans over the years 1750-1900, and elaborates on the developments of varying treatments that were administered to mental patients during this time. Whitaker writes of methods like dunking the patients in water, bloodletting, the tranquilizer

In the 1930’s, there was a dispute surrounding mental illness. People could go unheard and learn to live with it, but if they got diagnosed officially, they had a chance of society rejecting them. Mental illness became a stigma in the 1930s due to the fact that treatment was either a form of “torture” or there was limited resources and treatment to help those who suffered from a mental illness.

Mental health illnesses have been around since interrelated relationships have been present in society. The treatment of this illness has evolved immensely throughout history. Early on, those who were mentally ill were demonized and thought to be an all mighty evil, which had the ability to be passed on to others. Due to this ideology, many people shunned, and banished those who were thought to be mentally handicapped. In order to protect society from these “beasts” many people imprisoned mentally ill individuals and were stripped of the ability to live their lives. Fortunately, as society progressed and different ways of treating the mentally ill were established through scientific advancements. Along with these advances, treatment for

The ways of Health Care has advanced tremendously over the centuries, specifically, Psychiatric Care. There is a drastic difference between how the mentally impaired were treated in the 1930s and the now, 21st century. People with mental illnesses in the 21st century can be anyone, they’re just another face you see on the sidewalk, no big deal.

The treatments of the mentally disabled were extremely inhumane back in the early 1900s. No one really no sincerity for the mentally ill, and they were treated more like lab rats than actual people. And the “treatments” that they were given

I find it really interesting how much more developed we are now as compared to one-hundred years ago on treating mental illness. How scary it must have been back then to have a mental illness. For example, the lobotomy. The thought of having an ice pick put through your eye and into your brain. Or even a trephination, having a stone instrument cut into a section of the skull. It appeared to me that some of the even earlier treatments were pretty inhumane. Such as hydro therapy to stimulate the patient. Wrapping the patient in wet packs, putting them in hot baths or using heat lamps to stimulate them. Then there was the insulin therapy. Which causes them to go into a coma to experience a convulsion reaction. All of these things must have been

For many millennia psychological disorders, also called mental disorders have been misunderstood. Used to, people suffering from such disorders were thought to be demonically possessed or they were accused of being a witch. Many of these unfortunate people were burned, tortured, or locked up away from society, which was torturous in itself due to the deprivation of life sustaining necessities such as food and air that patients were forced to endure (Morris and Maisto, 2002).

Treatment and rehabilitation for the mentally ill has evolved substantially in comparison to the interventions and treatments that were used in the past. Treatment (or lack thereof) consisted of entirely different techniques than of those implemented today and diagnosing persons with mental illnesses was far more frequent in the past than what is seen in the present. Those who were considered mentally ill during the early to mid-1800s suffered some of the most inhumane and barbaric interventions known to man. According to Kelly Erin Ludovici, the causes of mental illness were blamed on a variety of different reasons, ranging from witchcraft and demonic possession to moral and spiritual failing. The punishments therefore handed down to those with a mental disorder consisted of being chained in basement cells, being stripped of all clothing, and being used as entertainment purposes to the public (Ludovici, 2010).

In the nineteenth century, treatment of mental illness in Gilman’s time was often mistreated. At the time, people feared others who appeared to have mental illness. Fear of mental illnesses began with the industrial age, as people who were diagnosed seemed as a threat to public safety. After the Civil War, there was no trust in treatment. Moral treatment was the most popular and efficient cure. Although, the curability rate was declined due to the high prices of facilities, government funds, and false trust in individuals who had guaranteed to be specialists yet had

In today’s society, the phenomenon of malingering is not being recognized as a mental illness, but rather an intentional faking of mental illness. Malingering had captured the attention of many forensic psychologists and is now a growing concern due to the potential consequences of misdiagnosis in clinical or correctional setting. Malingering defined as a deliberate act by a person pretending to have some form of physical or psychological symptoms in order to avoid a negative outcome such as a prison sentence, or to gain a positive outcome such as financial compensatory.

In the Victorian era (during the 1800s), it was a common belief that people with psychological illnesses were adulterated by the devil. Patients with these conditions were treated imperfectly and lived in unsanitary conditions. For example, most patients lived in cages, and were given minimal amounts of food, much like animals in captivity. As science progressed, a new perspective formed that challenged the original beliefs people had about mental illnesses. Not only did society make progress in the medicine involved in psychological illnesses, but they also made progress in the perception of these patients.

As far back as 5000 B.C. there is evidence that mental illnesses were treated with skull drillings. This is only one of the many treatment methods that were used on mental illness patients. Electroshock therapy, exorcisms, and lobotomies were also very common treatments for mentally ill patients. With today’s knowledge and technology, it is clear that not only are these treatments ineffective, but harmful to the patients. By the early 1920’s most of the problematic treatments had been abolished. In 1952, the same year that the DSM was published, E. Brunswick published The Conceptual Framework of Psychology. Also in 1952 many psychology societies and associations were established all around the world. As positive as that was, there is still

Before that period of time, most people did not have an understanding of mental illnesses and thought of it as some sort of possession by the devil (Schizophrenic.com, 2015). For this reason, and according to the

The idea of mental illness has always been around, but in 1808 the study of such things was given a name, this name being psychiatry. The name was coined by Professor Johann Christian Reil, and can be seen first in a seminal paper he had wrote at the time. The name psychiatry comes from psyche, meaning soul or mind, and iatros, meaning physician. So, in a sense, psychiatry means a physician that deals with the mind and soul. Stannard-Friel, 155–160.