Content Writer: Ananya Anindita Content Editor: Safa Sajith Blog Designer: Elsa Aziz Cognizance regarding any subject matter has indefinitely gone through a lot of events in history; mental health is no exception. The history of mental health through the ages has not been a pretty one, to say the least. It has been largely determined by the political and social factors of that particular period. Mental health care is greatly categorized by the latest fad/fashion/belief, for example, community care being the latest one. In the exceedingly early ages, mental health was associated with the religious institution. A mental illness was considered a punishment by the gods. Thus, the “sinner” deserved the pain, or they were thought to be possessed. In ancient Egypt, India, Greek, Rome and China, mental health was seen as either a religious issue or a personal problem. However, in 5 BCE the Greek physician Hippocrates, came up with his theory of personality. He rejected the term ‘insanity’ and explained it to be a natural occurrence caused by the imbalance of 4 types of bodily fluids (blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm). This led to physicists draining the “extra fluid” out of the body, known as ‘blood-letting’ thus they would prescribe laxatives to patients, draw blood and even tobacco was used to cause vomiting. This concept was followed quite well through the middle ages as well. In the 16th-18th century, the concept of demon possession continued and the mentally ill were accused of making a pact with the devil as well as committing demonic activities, like eating babies. A large cross-section of these people was referred to as witches, leading to mass witch-hunts and killing. During these times, the family who were the primary caretakers of the patients often were ashamed of them due to the social-stigma and repulsion that came with the conditions. This led to the extremely inhumane treatment of the patients; from being locked in dungeons, being beaten atrociously (to drive the spirit away) to having a hole drilled into their skull so that the spirit can escape. Well, it is no shock, as humans tend to categorize anything as wrong or evil when it slightly deviates from their standard definition of “normal”, anything foreign to us is always a ‘threat’. By the 18th century, terms like “insanity”, “madness”, “psycho” etc. came up. And soon mental asylums, which were referred to as ‘madhouse’ started coming up. These asylums were supposed to be housing institutions for the mentally ill, however, they mainly segregated them from society. These institutions were profit-making organizations, it became a lucrative business. The patients were left to fend for themselves in vicious conditions. They were kept in windowless rooms, dungeons, chained up, beaten to be “tamed”, and had little to no human contact; basically, treated like animals. In the 19th century, as industrialization and modernization took over, the number of mental asylums just grew in number along with the number of patients. The asylums became overcrowded and the treatment derogated. A retired schoolteacher, Dorothea Dix, realised the negligence regarding this matter, advocated for better and more asylums and even managed to establish 30 mental institutions in the United States and Canada. After the publishing of the book ‘A mind that found itself’ by Clifford Beers who was a former patient, the hygiene conditions were taken into consideration. Also, since scientific reasoning, understanding and perception had taken over society by then, several pieces of research had been made on the mental health topic and a lot of psychological explanations had come into the picture. In the 20th century, shock-therapy had made its place in the treatment books. Patients were mercilessly given shock treatments, kept in cold rooms, given cold baths etc. This however changed with time, as more and more conditions were researched upon. ‘Asylum’ changed to ‘hospital’. The patients were no longer called inmates. And the hygiene issues also started getting better. More awareness was created around mental health, proper education was provided regarding this subject. Proper treatment like counselling also started. Now, psychology has become a mainstream subject and mental health issues are being spoken about quite openly. Since it is not a tangible concept, it becomes an arduous subject to explain. However, at the very least the concept of ‘demonic possession’ has ceased to exist and is only prevalent in a few rural parts of the world, mainly tribal organizations. Awareness is still being created throughout the world along with social media platforms helping in the destigmatizing of mental health. The road to positive mental health has been a long and turbulent one but the goal’s near and we can’t give up now.
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