Mental disorder historical perspective

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

## Overview[edit | edit source]

## Historical Perspective[edit | edit source]

Eight women representing prominent mental diagnoses in the nineteenth century.

Main article: History of mental disorders

A number of mental disturbances, such as melancholy, hysteria and phobia, were described long ago in Ancient Greece and Rome, while others such as schizophrenia may not have been recognized.[1] Hippocrates considered the idea that mental illness may be related to biology.[2]

Psychiatric theories and treatments for mental illness developed in Muslim psychology and Islamic medicine in the medieval Islamic world from the 8th century, where the first psychiatric hospitals were built.[3] The Baghdad Hospital was run by the Persian physician Rhazes. Unlike most ancient and medieval societies which believed mental illness to be caused by either demonic possession or as punishment from a God, Islamic neuroethics held a more sympathetic attitude towards the mentally ill, as exemplified in Sura 4:5 of the Qur'an, which considers the mentally ill to be unfit to manage property but must be treated humanely and be kept under care by a guardian.[4]

Medieval Europe had focused on demonic possession as the explanation of aberrant behavior.[5] Paracelsus used the word lunatic to describe behavior thought to be caused by the lunar effect.[6] Many other terms for mental disorder that found their way into everyday use have been traced to initial use in the 16th and 17th centuries. [7] Shakespeare and his contemporaries frequently depicted mental disorders in their plays. [8] Conditions of "shell shock" came to be recognized in war veterans. From the early study of mental illness through individuals such as Philippe Pinel, Sigmund Freud, and Alois Alzheimer, much has changed in the development and understanding of mental illness and continues to change today.

At the start of the 20th century there were only a dozen officially recognized mental health conditions.[citation needed]. By 1952 there were 192 and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) today lists 374.

## References[edit | edit source]

1. ↑ K. Evans, J. McGrath, R. Milns (2003) Searching for schizophrenia in ancient Greek and Roman literature: a systematic review Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 107 (5), 323–330.
2. ↑ Stong, C. (2005). The Evolution of NeuroPsychiatry. Neuropsychiatry Reviews, 6.
3. ↑ Ibrahim B. Syed PhD, "Islamic Medicine: 1000 years ahead of its times", Journal of the Islamic Medical Association, 2002 (2), p. 2-9 [7-8].
4. ↑ A. Vanzan Paladin (1998), "Ethics and neurology in the islamic world. Continuity and change", Italial Journal of Neurological Science 19: 255-258 [257], Springer-Verlag.
5. ↑ Kroll J., & Bachrach, B. (1984). Sin and mental illness in the Middle Ages. Psychological Medicine, 14, 507-514.
6. ↑ Delgado, J.M., Doherty, A.M.S., Ceballos, R.M., Erkert, H.G. (2000). Moon Cycle Effects on Humans: Myth or Reality? Salud Mental, 23, 33-39.
7. ↑ Dalby JT. (1993) Terms of Madness: Historical Linguistics. Comprehensive Psychiatry 34,392-395.
8. ↑ Dalby JT. (1997) Elizabethan madness: On London's stage. Psychological Reports 81, 1331-1343.

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