Mental health has always been an outstanding problem among the human race. We, as humans, are far from understanding the exact causes of mental illness and are even further from finding the cure for them. While our lack of knowledge and acceptance for these issues may be frustrating, if we look into the history of psychiatric medicine and compare it to modern psychiatry then we will see that, while the perception of mental illness still has room to improve, it has been getting better. Compared to modern day psychiatry where the mentally ill are meant to benefit from treatment and psychiatrists are focused on helping them function with a good quality of life, in history it was predominantly used to control people under the guise of curing them. Take a look at what justified institutionalization in the early 1900s: homosexuality, “hysteria”, and simple disobedience among countless others reasons.
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Our society no longer considers homosexuality to be a mental illness; we have laws to protect them and they are not required to see psychiatrists to receive “help”. But in the early 20th century, that wasn’t the case. Not fitting into a heteronormative role undoubtedly meant a trip to an asylum. The treatments for homosexuality, often referred to as conversion therapy, included: icepick lobotomies, chemical castration, aversive treatments, and masturbatory
Our society no longer considers homosexuality to be a mental illness; we have laws to protect them and they are not required to see psychiatrists to receive “help”. But in the early 20th century, that wasn’t the case. Not fitting into a heteronormative role undoubtedly meant a trip to an asylum. The treatments for homosexuality, often referred to as conversion therapy, included: icepick lobotomies, chemical castration, aversive treatments, and masturbatory