psychology : historical context of mental health - background info

ancient - middle ages and 16th-17th century beliefs

believed that mental disorders ere caused by spirits or demons

who cared for mentally ill during ancient - middle ages

cared for by family OR were left to wander the streets, vulnerable to assault and derision (ridicule / mockery)

ancient - middle ages treatment

• trepanning (drilling into head)

• purges (throwing up)

• bloodletting

• whipping

who cared for the mentally ill during 16th-17th century

those who worked at / ran the workhouses, poorhouses and jails

16th-17th century treatments

• were sent to local workhouses, poorhouses and jails

• sometimes sent to the new private madhouses (run for profit)

18th-19th century beliefs about causes

believed that lunatics were possessed by spirits or demons

who cared for the mentally ill during the 18th-19th century

• cared for in reform asylums

• cared for by doctors

treatments during 18th-19th century

• moral treatments e.g. rest, physical work (gardening), talking to others

• shocking the body using ice baths, loud noises, bloodletting

20th and 21st century beliefs about causes

• Freuds psychodynamic theory developed (early 20th century)

• physical causes e.g. brain abnormalities

who cared for the mentally ill during the 20th century

• institutions and asylums

• NHS created - more care in the community

20th century treatments

• psychoanalysis

• physical treatments e.g. ECT, frontal lobotomies

who cared for the mentally ill during the 21st century

asylums closed down and people were treated in their own homes

treatments in the 21st century

• fluoxetine was developed

• medicines and therapy