Philippe Pinel: The First Psychologist

“Timeline: Treatments for Mental Illness” notes the history of mental illness; before the 1840s, being mentally ill was considered to be a form of religious punishment and demonic punishment by many cultures. In 1407 the first European establishment for mentally ill was established in Valencia, Spain. As time progressed it was shown that Europeans began to increasingly isolate the mentally ill; treated inhumanly, often kept chained to walls in dungeons. In the late 1700s some changes were made as concerns for the mentally ill people’s well being grew. After the French revolution Phillippe Pinel, a French physician, took over the Bicêtre insane asylum, forbidding the use of chains and shackles. He provided the mentally ill with better living conditions, sunny rooms and the ability to roam around the grounds. Though some things have improved, mistreatment in other asylums persisted. In

Even though asylum classifications stayed moderately constant for a century, there was a development in the thinking about insanity. One of Pinel’s scholar proposed the idea that there could be a distinct mood faculty in a category of its own in the 1830’s. Jean-Dominique Etienne Esquirol, who explained a deep sadness, lypemanie as a distinct disorder. The fact that mania or insanity could create shifting manifestations had presented little difficulty, however, they had problems with the fact that two clinical states being so different could be caused by the same underlying disease state. In order to overcome these conceptual problems, Falret and Baillarger proposed a disorder that had changing cycles of mania and melancholia of certain length

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

Finally his studies led him to France at the age of 21, where he studied under Paul Vidal for a short period of time and then under Mlle. Boulanger for three years. Before

From the early 1830s the insane were moved to the new state-run institutions that specialized in treatment of the mentally ill. The roots of this practice reach back to the eighteenth century, both in Europe and America. In the early ages of the insane asylums, the mentally ill when placed in the hands doctors, might have been bleed or fed an obscene amount of purgatives or laxatives. Finally a new medical standard known as "moral treatment" took hold, thanks to the French physician and asylum-keeper Philippe Pinel (1745–1826), who claimed that “[His] new field of asylum medicine guaranteed all the mentally ill the right to humane treatment rather than neglect or abuse.” Moral treatment was an approach to mental sickness related to how people think and treat each other, which became visible in the 18th century and came into place for much of the 19th century, coming partly from mental health care and partly from religious or moral

Finding a transport of children being invited to France by Charles de Gaulle, he hopped on and went to France, where he eventually found his two older sisters. There, he went to the Sorbonne, otherwise known as the University of France, where he studied Philosophy and Journalism.

After graduation in Harvard in 1821, he took a job as a teacher. Gradually he moved toward the ministry. He

“ Earth is the insane asylum of the universe” Albert Einstein What comes to mind when you hear “insane asylum?” Do such terms as lunatic, scary, haunted or even the crazy house come to mind? More than likely this is the terminology that most of us would use to describe our perception of insane asylums. However, those in history that had a heart’s desired to treat the mentally ill compassionately and humanely had a different viewpoint. Insane asylums were known for their horrendous treatment of the mentally ill, but the ultimate purpose in the reformation of insane asylums in the nineteenth century was to improve the treatment for the mentally ill by providing a humane and caring environment for

When it came to curing the patient, isolation sometimes worked, but it depended on the degree of infliction. In some cases, a patient who wasn’t actually insane was driven insane by the solitude instead of being cured by it. Legally, the patient’s land would typically be given to

Within the streamlined boundaries of today’s society, many find amenity in discussing their unrest with those who can lessen it or resolve it completely. Similarly, when the burden is too great, those with apprehensions about their mental state are welcomed into psychiatric facilities designed to rehabilitate their patients to their full potential. Psychopathy is defined by a select grouping of symptoms while the classification of psychopaths has changed substantially over the last 60 years, largely by Dr. Robert Hare. Randle McMurphy, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s protagonist displays a combination of psychopathic tendencies and inclinations of those not needing psychiatric care. Within the 1960s definition of a psychopathic individual

"Emotional, behavioral, and social maturity or normality; the absence of a mental or behavioral disorder; a state of psychological well-being,” is by definition a mental disorder. However whether you are born with mental health issues or that you develop it over time, there is no cure. Way back in the 18th century, when our nation greatest literature was produced, it was very often that it was written with a dark background. The literature from our course presents several forms of madness, however this may be normal for each character, but it is abnormal for society.

Since the beginning of Anglo-American law, the proposition that some criminal defendants should not be found guilty of their crimes by reason of mental instability has been a well established judicial action throughout centuries of jurisdiction. Even though the original intent of this practice was to soften the harsh consequences of capital punishments, the psychiatric state of persons convicted of crimes quickly became an important mechanism of social regulation. The justification for this mechanism lies in the assumption that the criminally insane are irrational and therefore non-responsible of their crimes. As we examine the history and implications of the insanity plea, a few questions should be kept in mind---1. How can we be sure

“He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong” (1984, ch 7).

For a considerable length of time, a standout amongst the most questionable themes in the lawful framework has been the mental illness. When somebody does a wrongdoing, he or she may utilize psychological instability as a defense. This is called Insanity defense. By attempting to utilize insanity defense, the claimed wrongdoer tries to get a reasonable trial. Society concurs with this rule. The issue is the place do we take a stand. Under what conditions is a man thought about crazy, and when they are not crazy. As they use mental illness as shields respondents from accepting full charges for their wrongdoing, as indicated by their psychological state at the time of their activities. However, because of this, it’s imperfect defense in which creates a loophole in our criminal justice system and that it must be

Psychopaths pose a challenge for theorists as to their debatable degree of moral and legal responsibility for their actions, as the capacities needed to assign such attributions to an individual may not be present. As psychopaths are able to see the world as it is with no delusions of a false reality they are able to practically apply reason in an effort to pursue their own goals. However, they seem unable to maintain control of their behaviours when placed in a moral situation when their goals are in congruence with the morally negligent path. This is due to their lack of empathy and an inability to see purpose in treating others in a morally acceptable