The 1800s brought the first use of the term “psychiatry” and some early attempts at classifying the different psychiatric and mental disorders were made. Psychiatrists were called alienists because they often dealt with people most alienated from society in general. Most psychiatrists were managers who just dealt with the day to day management of people with psychiatric conditions. Asylums were places of abuse and neglect rather than therapeutic places for healing. There were ex-patient advocates who felt that the care of the mentally ill should be more humane. The three main paradigms seen in the history of mental illness were psychogenic, somatogenic, and supernatural. Those who believed in supernatural causes thought that eclipses, demonic spirits, the displeasure of the gods, sin, and curses were to blame for these disorders. Those who inclined toward a somatogenic cause though that there might be genetic or physical causes or that brain damage or chemical imbalances caused mental illness. Psychogenic causes included maladaptive thoughts, trauma, or stress were responsible.
EVOLUTION OF MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT THROUGHOUT HISTORY The treatment strategies used for mental illness varied according to the differing beliefs that have existed throughout history as to the causation of these diseases. When in ancient times it was mostly believed that the causes of mental illness were supernatural, the treatments were often related to that idea. Trephination has been used since at least 5000 BCE, presumably for the management of mental illness. By having a medicine man or the equivalent bore a hole into the skull, it was thought that evil spirits could have a route of escape from the head in order to cure them. Some people survived the treatment and some might have improved for other reasons, giving validity to the practice. There were also priests who were doctors in Mesopotamia that used religious rituals and prayer along with exorcisms and other similar spiritual techniques to cure people of their mental illness. Some would punish or threaten sufferers if their original treatments were unsuccessful in changing their “patient’s” behaviors.
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