Using different examples of the historical treatments for mental illness, compare and contrast the underlying perspectives (i.e., biological, psychological, social and biopsychosocial) regarding mental health that fostered these treatments. The underlying perspectives regarding mental health have changed drastically over history. Anceint theories invovled spirits controling human behavior. It is thought that in order to cure someone the practices trephination (cutting away sections of the skull) to allow the evil spirits to be released. During the classical Greek and Roman periods the idea was the Gods had control over behavior. If you were to disobey the deities you could be punished with a mental illness. Hippocrates (460-277 BC) idetified symptoms of mental illnesses, as such; hallucinations, delusion, melancholia, mania, and hysteria. He believed mental illness was brought upon due to envioment and physical changes. He believed they created humors (imbalance of bodily fliuds) and patients should be separated from their families, which created the idea of institutions. Galan had an expertise of medicine: neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, neurology, pharacology, phychiatry, and philosophy. After the fall of the Roman Empire demonology dominated theories once again. However, Avicenna considered depression to result from the mixture of mixtures of humors and believed physical disease were caused by emotional distress. His idea of treatment was music. In the middle ages through the renaissance, demons were thought to be in controll of all evil, including mental illness. During this time around 100,000 were sentenced to death due to the accusations of witchcraft or the devil. Mass hysteria broke out during this time, which led to som... ... middle of paper ... ...lain the difference between normal and abnormal behavior; provide at least one historical example of a behavior that is no longer consider abnormal. In the past anything that did not fit into the norms of the society was seem as abnormal. There has been so much enlightment shown throughout the last few decades that the range of normal has explanded it's horizon. For example, homosexuality was viewed as immoral and shunned by many. Society today has become very accepting of one anothers choices. Today we consider abnormal behavior as behavior that is inconsistent with the individual's developmental, cultural, and societial norms that creates emotional distress or inerfers with daily functioning. I find this to be very fair. If a person's individual actions cause no distress and doesn't effect their functioning capibilities then it should not be looked as indifferent.
Leupo, Kimberly. "The History of Mental Illness." The History of Mental Illness. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Most people want to be normal. The definition of normal however, depends on the culture of the person making the judgment. Far too often, normal is defined in America by looking at the actions and beliefs of the average white middle class family. This definition of normal fails to let other cultures to be accepted, creating distance and misunderstanding.
In the 1800’s people with mental illnesses were frowned upon and weren't treated like human beings. Mental illnesses were claimed to be “demonic possessions” people with mental illnesses were thrown into jail cells, chained to their beds,used for entertainment and even killed. Some were even slaves, they were starved and forced to work in cold or extremely hot weather with chains on their feet. Until 1851, the first state mental hospital was built and there was only one physician on staff responsible for the medical, moral and physical treatment of each inmate. Who had said "Violent hands shall never be laid on a patient, under any provocation.
Madness: A History, a film by the Films Media Group, is the final installment of a five part series, Kill or Cure: A History of Medical Treatment. It presents a history of the medical science community and it’s relationship with those who suffer from mental illness. The program uses original manuscripts, photos, testimonials, and video footage from medical archives, detailing the historical progression of doctors and scientists’ understanding and treatment of mental illness. The film compares and contrasts the techniques utilized today, with the methods of the past. The film offers an often grim and disturbing recounting of the road we’ve taken from madness to illness.
Mental illness has been around as long as people have been. However, the movement really started in the 19th century during industrialization. The Western countries saw an immense increase in the number and size of insane asylums, during what was known as “the great confinement” or the “asylum era” (Torrey, Stieber, Ezekiel, Wolfe, Sharfstein, Noble, Flynn Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill). Laws were starting to be made to pressure authorities to face the people who were deemed insane by family members and hospital administrators. Because of the overpopulation in the institutions, treatment became more impersonal and had a complex mix of mental and social-economic problems. During this time the term “psychiatry” was identified as the medical specialty for the people who had the job as asylum superintendents. These superintendents assumed managerial roles in asylums for people who were considered “alienated” from society; people with less serious conditions wer...
Moral treatment is a treatment that uses “psychological methods” to treat mental diseases (Packet Two, 26). In general, moral treatment was a relatively benevolent and humane approach to treat mental disorders. Before the introduction of moral treatment, insane people were regarded by the general public as wild animals whose brains were physically impaired and usually incurable (Packet One, 11). Therefore, regardless of patients’ specific symptoms, physicians generally labeled patients as lunatics and treated them with the same method (Packet One, 11). Because of the perceived impossibility of curing mental illness, physicians put far greater emphasis on restraining patients’ potential danger behaviors than striving to bring them back to sanity. Cruel methods such as bloodletting were widely used, but their effectiveness was really poor. Moral treatment was a response to this ineffective and brutal traditional treatment. The advocates of moral treatment insisted that mental diseases were curable. By providing a friendly environment that contributed to reviving, moral treatment could help patients to...
This is a difficult question to answer because there is not a right answer. The research of abnormal behavior supports both the universal and the cultural relativist approach.
The treatment of the mentally ill started back in the far past. In 400 BC, Hippocrates, who was a Greek physician, treated mental illness as diseases of disturbed physiology, and not displeasure of the Gods or demonic possession ("Timeline: Treatments for," ). Greek medical writers found treatments such as quiet, occupation, and the use of a drug called purgative hellebore ("Timeline: Treatments for,”). During these times, family members took care of the mentally ill ("Timeline: Treatments for,”). In the middle Ages, the Europeans let the mentally ill have their freedom, as long as they were not dangerous ("Timeline: Treatments for,”). The mentally ill were also seen as witches who were possessed by demons ("Timeline: Treatments for,”). In 1407, the first mental illness establishment was made in Valencia, Spain ("Timeline: Treatments for,”).
Schoeneman, Thomas J.. "The role of mental illness in the European witch hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: An assessment." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. Wiley Online Library: Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 2006. 337–351. Print.
Although, serial killers such as Ted Bundy looked and acted “normal” on the inside he was not. I find it very difficult to define normal behavior, because of the large variations of what is “normal”. Our society accepts many forms of normal behavior, whether it is a gender identity issue, or being LBGT are both of which would have never occurred or be accepted in 1970. Thankfully, we live in a country and have information that tests our toddlers and children to make sure they are hitting the “normal” developmental milestones. An absence of speech by a certain age is a milestone used to test a child for autism (Hooley, Butcher, & Mineka,
In today?s society we live by the norm and we chastise those individuals who do not live by the guidelines or expectation of society. We as a society praise those who follow our folkways in public and private. Folkways is a guideline set my society that we follow for the sake of convenience or tradition. As part of my Sociology 1B course I had to go out and observed two norm violations and violate one myself in order to understand the society I live in. In my job I was able to observe two norm violations one was a member who was passing out candy who violated
deviations and find themselves perfectly normal. For people shouldnt have that thought that what they
Perceptions of mental health have changed dramatically since the 1800s and will continue to advance as more is learned about the human mind. Significant advancements have been made in this field, but there is still much room for progress to be made as more is learned. From barbaric assumptions about the mentally ill in the 1800s, to what is now known about mental illness and the human brain, these accomplishments can definitely be described as “one giant leap for mankind.”
Tasca, Cecilia , Mariangela Rapetti, Mauro Giovanni Carta, and Bianca Fadda. "Women and Hysteria In The History of Mental Health." U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. N.p., 1 Oct. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. .
One of the most obvious things that we are noticing in our everyday lives is that people are distinctly different. There are 7 billion people sharing the earth. But how many are considered “normal”? When are people considered abnormal? To be normal is to adhere to a standard or norm, but unfortunately, normality is an impossible and unlikely dream that we will continue to strive for all our lives. We strive for it because it gives us that sense of self that we need to reassure us that we fit in. While undefined, depending on your upbringing, generation and culture, what you consider normal may not be normal for someone else because other countries and cultures have different traditions and practices that they view to be routine; and what in the past has been viewed as normal has evolved throughout the course of time.