historical account of the approach to abnormality

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Brief historical account of the approach to abnormality

Descriptions of abnormal behaviour can be found among the historical records of the first civilizations and it is certain that the early Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks and Incas were familiar with the features of disturbed behaviour that may today be identified as mental illness. Sadly, it also seems that for much of the recorded history such people have found themselves marginalised, shunned or ridiculed, with their symptoms variously attributed to the processes of demonic possession, divine punishment, planetary influence or witchcraft. However, it has not always been the idea that people who behaved differently were mad. Here are listed some of the explanations that have been offered across history.

In antiquity, people believed in the idea of possession, and disturbed behaviour was seen as due to bad spirits or by good spirits, and the cure consisted in making the spirits restore the balance either by sacrifices or prayers, but some of the cures were trepanning, flogging, and starvation. This was seen in e.g. Ancient Egypt and Greece. If peoples’ acts were against the priesthood, it was always interpreted as cause by bad spirits. During the Middle Ages the Church also made religious explanations, possession by demons believed to explain abnormal behaviour. Exorcism was considered to be an efficient treatment. The dangerous situation of mentally ill individuals was illustrated in 1484, when the Pope issued a decree reminding his emissaries that sudden loss of reason, amongst other signs, should be regarded as one of the features of demonic possessions, for which the appropriate action was burning at the stake. However, saints who heard voices (for example Joan of Arc) were not considered to be abnormal. Ehrenreich and English (1973) argue that the persecution of the witches was an attempt to devalue the folk medicine represented by elderly women.

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During the Renaissance the idea began to arise that people acting strangely were mentally ill. A Dutch physician, Johann Weyer, suggested that other treatments than exorcism was needed. However, the church was much too powerful, and his books were burned and banned and the church continued to proclaim the theory of possession. Eventually, a change was seen and mental institutions were opened. In 1547, the first mental institution in England was founded in the monastery of St. Mary of Bethlehem (Bedlam) and there were also institutions on the continent. Bedlam was open to people as a show until ...

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