Mentally Illients In The 19th Century

Many people thought in the 18th and 19th century the mentally ill patients were treated as healthy as present day patients. In fact the 18th and 19th century patients were treated horrendously, and people didn’t care about them because they thought they were dangerous to the people of the town. It was believed that mental illness was caused by demonic possession, witchcraft, or an angry god (Szasz, 1960). Because they believed that they were possessed (an evil spirit inside of their body), they started to treat them with exorcism. The exorcism was often conducted by a priest or a religious figure other than a priest. The priest often prayed over the person’s body and give them medicinal drinks. They also use trephining which is a small hole was made in the afflicted individual’s body to release spirits from the body. Many people that were treating usually died because their body couldn’t take the torture anymore. Others were left homeless and beggars in the cities. These people were considered to be witches and were tried and condemned by courts--they were often burned at the sake. Worldwide, it is estimated that tens of thousands of mentally ill people were killed after being accused of …show more content…
Antipsychotic medications was introduced in the 1960s which really helped the symptoms that they were having.They even discovered what kind of symptoms they were having to determine what was the illness that they were having.Then in 1963, Congress passed and John F. Kennedy signed the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, which provided federal support and funding for community mental health centers (National Institute of Health, 2013). This allowed large asylums to be shut down and patients to be helped instead of being tortured and harmed for no apparent reason. The way the mentally ill was treated has came a long way since the 18th and19th