The History of Mental Illness

This article begins by discussing the history of mental illness, going as far back as the 1700s. It goes over professionals in the field, the incidence rate, and treatments, all of this from the different time periods throughout the United States. The author also makes a point to acknowledge the different perceptions there were in the past of mental

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

There was still a large lack of understanding that what caused mental illness the 1930’s, however people still wanted to treat mental illness so this brought more therapeutic ideas on how to cure it. In 1933, two neurologists at Yale Primate Laboratory, Dr. Fulton and Jacobson, performed experiments on two monkeys. They tested the intelligence of the monkeys before and after the removal of half the brains’ frontal lobes. They seemed to retain their skills and intelligence. Fulton and Jacobson wanted to take this a little further, they removed the other half of the frontal lobe. They discovered that the monkeys no longer became violent and frustrated when they didn't immediately get their treats after completing the intelligence test [9].

The treatment of mental illness has gone through many reforms over the years. Stemming from some of the earliest documented cases of treatment such as trephination in 5000 B.C. to the opening of “mental” asylums starting in the late 1300s to the development of the modern healthcare system. Through the 1800s until now, major developments in mental health treatment include the evolution of the “mental” asylum, widespread psychopharmacology, and psychotherapy treatments. Primarily focusing on the treatment methods of the past two hundred or so years, the United States of America has made leaps and bounds to provide humane treatment to aid those in need.

Lobotomy, a surgical procedure that which involves the incision of the prefrontal brain; To cure patients suffering from mild to critical mental conditions. The article reported by NPR portrays the role of lobotomy and it’s effects based upon the point of view of actual patient, Howard Dully. Originally, Freeman adapted the idea of neurological procedures from Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz. Who infamously drilled holes into patients skulls to cure mental illness. From this idea Freeman adapted the term lobotomy and later performed the first ever American lobotomy procedure. And due to lack of the understanding and treatments for mental illnesses this surgical procedure spread like wildfire in the United States.

During the 1800s, treating individuals with psychological issues was a problematic and disturbing issue. Society didn’t understand mental illness very well, so the mentally ill individuals were sent to asylums primarily to get them off the streets. Patients in asylums were usually subjected to conditions that today we would consider horrific and inhumane due to the lack of knowledge on mental illnesses.

Over the detritus of centuries, mental illnesses (such as anxiety, depression and personality disorder) have been a major contentious topic, especially in the medieval times in which religion centered, cultural and traditional influenced people deemed these exhibiting symptoms of psychopathology as demonic possessions (Davey, 2011). It was not until the late 18th and 19th century when its rival, medical science, addressed the mental illnesses fully. It was then when S. Weir Mitchell's treatment of epilepsy and emotional liability with

Forget all the stereotypes of mental illness. It has no face. It has no particular victim. Mental illness can affect an individual from any background and the black community is no exception. African Americans sometimes experience even more severe forms of mental health conditions because of unmet needs and barriers to treatment. According to the Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. That’s why UGA third year Majenneh Sengbe is taking action as the co-founder of her upcoming organization Black Minds Daily.

In the late 1930’s and until the late 1950’s in the United States, lobotomy was a form of brain surgery designed to control mental illness. In the beginning, Gottlieb Burckhardt, a Swiss physician and Egas Moniz, a Portuguese neurologist performed lobotomies on severely mentally ill adult patients. Inspired by the work of Moniz, Walter Freeman and James Watts began to work together to perform prefrontal lobotomies on mentally ill patients. Freeman believed that there were physical abnormalities in the brain that caused mental illness. The prefrontal lobotomies were performed to correct the physical abnormalities of mentally ill patients who were suffering from agitated depression, dementia, and psychoses in which there were no successful treatments (Collins and Stam, 2014). In 1942, there were 100,000 new admissions to state psychiatric hospitals and by 1946 this increased to 272,000 (AIS Health and Stress, 2014). The enormous cost of taking care of the increased number of patients was beginning to bankrupt some states. Part of the increase was because of the returning troops suffering from war related psychiatric disorders. In order to meet the increased number of mentally ill patients, Freeman developed the transorbital lobotomy which was a faster, less expensive surgery that could performed without a neurosurgeon (Diefenbach, J., Diefenbach, D., Baumeister, and West, 1999). The number of

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

In 1961 Thomas Szasz penned a book by the title The Myth of Mental Illness that would go on to cause quite the stir in the world of psychiatry. In the book, Szasz stated his belief that what most psychiatrists would label as mental illnesses are in fact not illnesses at all, but instead what he would go on to call “problems in living.” This article will take a critical approach at Szasz reasons for his belief in these “problems in living” including an objective outline of his argument, a discussion on the validity of the argument and its’ premises, and finally the strongest objections to the argument. Szasz is an important figure in modern psychiatry and his opinions are very divisive but certainly worth discussing.

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

Medical History: Client does not present any medical history problem. Client had never experience counseling before, this is the first time he is having counseling. Client had stated that he feels comfortable with counselor and he likes he fact that everything being said is between the counselor and the client, besides any types of harm including himself or others.

The somatic treatments had a rapid rise and fall, occupying a unique and relatively short period in early twentieth-century psychiatry. It was a pivotal time that marked the end of what critics called ‘therapeutic nihilism’ of the nineteenth century, that offered new hope in the 1920s and 1930s with treatment innovations to cure the insane. Psychiatrists took advantage of all the advances medical science had to offer, determined to help their patients and strengthen psychiatry’s status as a medical specialty. The medical model well-suited the psychiatric ideology in the physical basis of insanity, which doctors, in turn, adapted medical treatments to cure insanity. Doctors embraced medicalisation with physical treatments including malariotherapy in the late 1920s, insulin coma (ICT) and cardiazol therapy in

In the science community, diagnoses and treatment of disorders of the mind are explored in the field of psychology. Roger Smith discusses this psychology in periodical literature, stating that ‘Victorian language linking mind and body was awkward, opaque, and unsettled.’ Psychology was still brand new to the world in the nineteenth century and it was not fully understood; however, there was great interest in the mechanics of the brain. This was evident in the periodicals, which ‘detailed the intimate mutual