How History Has Treated Mental Disorder

Mental Health Disorders
Throughout the centuries, mental health disorder has been viewed in a number of different ways by different eras and communities around the world. Some approached it from a spiritual dimension, while others approached it from a naturalistic viewpoint (Kyziridis, 2005; Smith, 2007). Food, music, prayer, and time spent in comfortable surroundings were variously viewed as ways to treat mental disturbance in antiquity. Through the Middle Ages, mental disorder became associated with spiritual influence, either from Heaven or from Hell.

Hospitals were places where persons with severe mental disorders were placed, but there was not much good treatment—as the experiences at Bedlam in London have shown. When the Age of Enlightenment and more focus on naturalistic science prevailed in the 18th century onward, more focus on the brain and how to treat disturbances brought new treatments into existence.

Today, many mental health disorders are still not understood very well. However, with the right combination of pharmacological and cognitive therapy interventions, many mental health issues can be successfully addressed. By having a good understanding of how mental health disorders were viewed and treated throughout time, I can better help to treat these disorders today by understanding what approaches have the best outcomes. For instance, a patient with schizophrenia would benefit from a pharmaceutical intervention to help control impulses in the mind that normally overwhelm the patient, while cognitive behavioral therapy could be used to help the patient learn how to cope with certain challenges and have a meaningful and positive life in spite of the disability of schizophrenia that the person is suffering from.