The belief and treatment of mental illness in the 19th Century were vastly differing from contemporary society’s approach to treating mental illness, primarily influenced by the culture, religious beliefs, and scientific understanding of the time.
Views and Attitudes Towards Mental Illness
Supernatural Explanation: In the early 19th Century, mental illness was often seen as the influence of supernatural forces. People believed that patients were afflicted by evil forces or magic, considering them possessed by demons or subjected to supernatural powers.
Moral Conceptions: Some viewed mental illness as a moral or spiritual defect, attributing it to moral corruption or sinful behavior rather than biological or psychological causes.
Isolation and Exclusion: During the early 19th Century, individuals with mental illness were often considered a burden to society. They were frequently isolated and excluded, confined to asylums or mental hospitals, and usually subjected to inhumane treatment.
Discovery of Mental Illness
The discovery of mental illness typically involves recognizing abnormal behaviors, speech, or emotional states in patients. Family members or community members might notice the patient’s erratic behavior, such as incoherent speech, unstable emotions, hallucinations, or delusions.
Treatment of Mental Illness
Physical Treatments: Common treatments in the early 19th Century included physical labor, starvation therapy, restraints, or isolation, attempting to control patients’ behavior through these means.
Psychological Treatments: As time progressed, some psychological interventions, such as psychoanalysis or talk therapy, began to be utilized for certain mental illnesses. However, these methods were not widespread during the early 19th Century.
Relevant Case
A young woman named Alice began exhibiting abnormal behavior suddenly, including hallucinations, emotional instability, and extreme mood swings. Her family continuously observed her repeating specific actions and phrases and noticed her growing inability to communicate with the real world. They believed she was under the influence of evil and sought the help of clergy, but her condition did not improve. Eventually, she was sent to a local mental hospital for treatment, where methods were still based on physical control and isolation rather than modern psychological therapies.
Progression Towards Biological Understanding
Over time, scientific understanding of mental illness progressed, focusing more on biological factors. In the late 19th Century, research emerged on the relationship between the nervous system’s function, brain structure, and mental illness. The rise of psychoanalytic approaches in the late 19th Century, led by figures like Freud, provided new perspectives on understanding mental illness, attributing many disorders to subconscious conflicts and childhood experiences.
