Freeman's work, however, advanced the understanding of the human brain in ways that probably helped pharmaceutical companies develop pharmacological interventions for people suffering from mental illness.
Long past its mythological place in the history of mankind and medicine, epilepsy continued to be perceived by many in very medieval terms; as the possession of a person by the devil, demonic possession, and, by some, as a form of mental illness (Szasz 117). Sir John Russell Reynolds (1828-196) was one of the earliest physicians to observe and conclude that people suffering from epilepsy were not necessarily suffering from a mental disorder or even possession by demonic monsters (117-118). Many psychiatrists and mental health experts, however, continued to look at epilepsy as a mental impairment (117-119). From 1890 to 1940 people suffering from epilepsy were "colonized" into institutional settings for the mentally ill, and treated for their seizures with a variety of drugs ranging from opium to Dilantin (121).
Thomas Stephen Szasz points out, and it is perhaps true even today, that, especially in the case of the epileptic:
"When treatment for epilepsy was nonexistent or rudimentary, psychiatrists...
Subsequently, as the physician's pharmacological power to treat epilepsy increased, his political power to deprive him of liberty, in the name of therapy, diminished and quickly disappeared (122)."
We have witnessed the physician's loss of power to institutionalize with the use of pharmacological interventions. Today, most mentally ill patients are treated at an outpatient level of care.
Works Cited
11 Most Endangered: St. Elizabeths Hospital, National Trust for Historic Preservation,
found online at http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/southern-region/st-elizabeths-hospital.html, 2010. Retrieved February 2, 2010. Web.
Lawrence, Christopher and Weisz, George. Greater than the Parts: Holism in Biomedicine, New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Pressman, Jack D. Last Resort: Psychosurgery and the Limits of Medicine, Cambridge,
UK, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print.
Szasz, Thomas Stephen. Coercion as a Cure: A Critical History of Psychiatry, New
Brunswick, NJ, Transaction Publishers, 2007. Print.
