The treatment of mentally ill people has evolved over time as the medical community had increased its understanding of the underlying causes of the disabilities. Asylums, places that housed the mentally ill in the 19th century, used harsh, painful, and inhumane methods to treat their patients. These methods of treatment began to change after Dorothea Dix, a teacher and nurse in the Civil War, began visiting asylums and reporting it to the public what she had witnessed. Dorothea Dix studied these patients and the treatments used on them for nearly her whole life, then helped a movement along to help asylums be better. Her criticisms of the asylum system would begin to change public opinion which was leading to laws being enacted to reform the
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Most if not all of the patients were held in cages, closets, pens, and stalls often times in cellars. Most of the patients who were disobedient were chained up naked and beaten/ lashed with rods and other sorts of items. After some time, asylums soon became institutions, where instead of just holding and punishing the mentally ill, they began trying to treat the disorders as well. One of the most common ways to “treat” a mental disorder was electroshock therapy, this is still used and there’s controversy on if this method really works to “cure” mental illness. Another treatment used on patients was mesmerism, more commonly known as hypnotism, then it was used to cure what was considered mental disorders; this is used today on people with sleeping disorders, nicotine addictions, and various other issues. Less common, but more therapeutic than hypnotism, was art therapy. Patients got to use art as a way to, mostly, express themselves. Art therapy is still used today, and is typically effective, but each person is different. One rarely used method, but perhaps the most reasonable of all, was talk-therapy. Talk therapy was almost the exact same therapy as if you went to a therapist to talk about your mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety.
A later method of treatment used was surgery. The most infamous and brutal surgery that a patient would undergo was a lobotomy. A lobotomy, if you don’t already know, is essentially a surgery to damage part of the brain, in hopes to change the person’s personality and be mentally sane. Due to the surgeon 's lack of sterile tools and medical technology, many patients were left worse than before, if they hadn’t died from
Most if not all of the patients were held in cages, closets, pens, and stalls often times in cellars. Most of the patients who were disobedient were chained up naked and beaten/ lashed with rods and other sorts of items. After some time, asylums soon became institutions, where instead of just holding and punishing the mentally ill, they began trying to treat the disorders as well. One of the most common ways to “treat” a mental disorder was electroshock therapy, this is still used and there’s controversy on if this method really works to “cure” mental illness. Another treatment used on patients was mesmerism, more commonly known as hypnotism, then it was used to cure what was considered mental disorders; this is used today on people with sleeping disorders, nicotine addictions, and various other issues. Less common, but more therapeutic than hypnotism, was art therapy. Patients got to use art as a way to, mostly, express themselves. Art therapy is still used today, and is typically effective, but each person is different. One rarely used method, but perhaps the most reasonable of all, was talk-therapy. Talk therapy was almost the exact same therapy as if you went to a therapist to talk about your mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety.
A later method of treatment used was surgery. The most infamous and brutal surgery that a patient would undergo was a lobotomy. A lobotomy, if you don’t already know, is essentially a surgery to damage part of the brain, in hopes to change the person’s personality and be mentally sane. Due to the surgeon 's lack of sterile tools and medical technology, many patients were left worse than before, if they hadn’t died from