Treatment of the Mentally Ill

Learning how to treat and distinguish the mentally disturbed has been a difficult and terrible lesson in history. Insane asylums were first built to remove mentally ill individuals from the streets. The treatments of mentally ill “patients” were barbaric and sometimes horrific. The people were chained in dark, filthy dungeons and badly abused. The population of this time did not know what to think of these unfortunate people and viewed them as animals. Many of the “lunatics” were thought to be demon-possessed and were chased in witch hunts, if they were not hospitalized in the asylums.

In 1792, a test was made in Paris. The insane inmates were released from their chains. Amazed at the change in behavior, the observers removed them from their dark, dreary rooms to sunny, clean rooms. This change in environment and change in treatment brought such a difference to the patients that some of them were able to be released from the asylums.

Benjamin Rush, who is known as the “Father of American Psychiatry” was far ahead of his time for the concern of mental illness. He published the first textbook on mental health in the United States entitled: Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind. Rush thought (incorrectly) that mental illness was caused by poor blood circulation. He created devices, such as the centrifugal spring board and the restraining chair, to improve the blood circulation to the brain. Though some of his thoughts were incorrect, Rush’s thinking was mainly centered on the wellness of the patient, and he was beyond others in his way of thinking. In his book, he writes:

"It has been remarked, that the maniacs of the male sex in all hospitals, who assist in cutting wood, making fires, and digging in a garden, and the females who are employed in washing, ironing, and scrubbing floors, often recover, while persons, whose rank exempts them from performing such services, languish away their lives within the walls of the hospital".

The treatments used to try and cure the deranged were simply horrific, and did not improve for a very long time. The tortures instilled on these individuals were meant to “shock” the patient back to reality, but, instead, sent them wheeling into an even more atrocious state of mind. These “treatments” ranged from branding a person’s head with a hot iron, in hope to shock the brain back to normalcy. Even to the late nineteenth century, a device that swung a person around and around was used to “calm the nerves”.

In the eighteenth century, the interest in medicine and treatment for these individuals rose, sending medics and scientists into experimenting with the patients of different madhouses. Patients from the madhouses who were eventually released claimed that the doctors and nurses applied torturous treatments to them. The medics denied such actions. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, more people emerged to fight for moral rights of the alleged insane.

The nineteenth century saw a huge increase in the population that was omitted to asylums. This time period is sometimes called “the great confinement” or the “asylum era” for the Western world. Throughout this century, many diagnostic terms and classification themes were developed. Also, people who ran Lunatic Asylums renamed them Insane Asylums.

In 1822 Cotton Mather, a Puritan clergyman, changed the way of thinking from superstition of the mentally challenged to actual physical reasons for the mental illnesses.

The twentieth century produced more in depth ways for psychoanalysis, which, in turn, led to fewer mistakes between mood disorders and diseases such as schizophrenia. In the United States, a mental hygiene movement began, bringing more light to the mental health of the society. Psychiatric facilities were produced and popularized over insane asylums.

Though knowledge about mental health had grown, the funding of the clinics and asylums majorly decreased during the world wars and the Great Depression, sending the state of the institutes downward in matters of hygiene and good help.

Mentally insane individuals were targeted by the Nazis’ prejudices, and were killed in effort to “purge” the country from “weaknesses”. Over 200,000 persons were killed in this act, though the horrific tragedy is barely noticed in history.

Although the mental institutes saw a deduction from the money given to them by the governments during the world wars, the idea of outside treatment for soldiers of World War II grew in popularity.

In the 1960s psychiatric hospitals became isolated and closed down, and people turned their favor to community mental health centers. Psychiatrists began their own private practices outside of the psychiatric wards to treat people with borderline mental illnesses. Technology and research strengthened the field of psychiatric treatment. In the 1970s more medications for anxiety and depression were produced and popularized.

Through the 1900s more antidepressants were developed and became some of the largest prescribed medication in the world.

Though history shows that the mentally ill have been greatly misunderstood and horrifically mistreated, the concern for these people are growing and society is becoming more involved in finding treatments in cures for these unfortunate people. Let us be thankful that medicine, technology, and knowledge have grown, under the guidance of God’s hand, so that we may treat the mentally ill as who they really are – God’s children.