This paper reviews the origins of the current concept of mental health, starting from the mental hygiene movement,
initiated in 1908
by consumers of psychiatric services and professionals interested in improving the conditions and the quality of treatment of people with mental disorders.
When did the mental health movement start?
1908
. Clifford Beers sparked the mental health reform movement with an insightful autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself, which chronicled his struggle with mental illness and the shameful conditions he and millions of others endured in mental institutions throughout the country.
Who invented mental health?
At the beginning of the 20th century,
Clifford Beers
founded “Mental Health America – National Committee for Mental Hygiene”, after publication of his accounts as a patient in several lunatic asylums, A Mind That Found Itself, in 1908 and opened the first outpatient mental health clinic in the United States.
How was mental illness treated in the 1960s?
Starting in the 1960s,
institutions were gradually closed and the care of mental illness was transferred largely to independent community centers
as treatments became both more sophisticated and humane.
What was mental health like in the 1980s?
In 1980,
mental illness was the third most expensive class of disorders accounting for more than 20 billion dollars of health care expenditures
. Only the circulatory disorders including heart disease, stroke and hypertension, and all disorders of the digestive system, were more costly in the aggregate.
How were the mentally ill treated in the 1800s?
In early 19th century America, care for the mentally ill was almost non-existent: the afflicted were usually relegated to prisons, almshouses, or inadequate supervision by families. Treatment, if provided,
paralleled other medical treatments of the time, including bloodletting and purgatives
.
How was mental illness treated in the 1700s?
In the 18th century, some believed that mental illness was a moral issue that could be treated through
humane care and instilling moral discipline
. Strategies included hospitalization, isolation, and discussion about an individual’s wrong beliefs.
How were mentally ill patients treated in the 1950s?
The use of certain treatments for mental illness changed with every medical advance. Although hydrotherapy, metrazol convulsion, and insulin shock therapy were popular in the 1930s, these methods gave way to psychotherapy in the 1940s. By the 1950s, doctors favored
artificial fever therapy and electroshock therapy
.
How mental health was treated in the past?
In the following centuries, treating mentally ill patients reached all-time highs, as well as all-time lows.
The use of social isolation through psychiatric hospitals and “insane asylums,” as they were known in the early 1900s, were used as punishment for people with mental illnesses.
How was mental illness viewed in the past?
For much of history,
the mentally ill have been treated very poorly
. It was believed that mental illness was caused by demonic possession, witchcraft, or an angry god (Szasz, 1960). For example, in medieval times, abnormal behaviors were viewed as a sign that a person was possessed by demons.
What was mental health like in the 1970s?
In the treatment of mental disorders, the 1970s was
a decade of increasing refinement and specificity of existing treatments
. There was increasing focus on the negative effects of various treatments, such as deinstitutionalization, and a stronger scientific basis for some treatments emerged.
How have attitudes about mental illness changed over the years?
One major change has been the shift in society’s attitudes.
People are becoming more accepting of mental health problems and more supportive of people with issues
. They are more aware of common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, and are more willing to talk to health professionals and seek treatment.
How many people have mental health issues?
Mental illnesses are common in the United States. Nearly one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (
52.9 million in 2020)
. Mental illnesses include many different conditions that vary in degree of severity, ranging from mild to moderate to severe.
Do asylums still exist?
Although
psychiatric hospitals still exist
, the dearth of long-term care options for the mentally ill in the U.S. is acute, the researchers say. State-run psychiatric facilities house 45,000 patients, less than a tenth of the number of patients they did in 1955.
What was considered insane in the 1800s?
Drunkenness and sexual intemperance, having venereal disease or deviant sexuality
, which was the Victorian phrase for homosexuality, were seen as significant drivers of madness. Other listed conditions included mania, dementia, melancholy, relapsing mania, hysteria, epilepsy and idiocy.
How did mental health start?
This paper reviews the origins of the current concept of mental health, starting from
the mental hygiene movement
, initiated in 1908 by consumers of psychiatric services and professionals interested in improving the conditions and the quality of treatment of people with mental disorders.
Are lobotomies still performed?
Today lobotomy is rarely performed
; however, shock therapy and psychosurgery (the surgical removal of specific regions of the brain) occasionally are used to treat patients whose symptoms have resisted all other treatments.
How was mental health treated in 1600s?
Using religious, psychological, astrological and traditional healing remedies
, Napier treated them all using a wide range of treatments.. Responses to mental illness at this time included everything from listening and humane intervention to incarceration in a building or ill treatment.
When did depression start in humans?
The term depression began to appear in
the nineteenth century
as did the modern concept of affective disorders, with the core disturbance now viewed as one of mood. The 1930s saw the introduction of defined criteria into official diagnostic schemes.
How was depression treated in the 1960s?
Exorcisms, drowning, and burning
were popular treatments of the time. Many people were locked up in so-called “lunatic asylums.” While some doctors continued to seek physical causes for depression and other mental illnesses, they were in the minority.
When were asylums shut down?
1967
Reagan signs the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act and ends the practice of institutionalizing patients against their will, or for indefinite amounts of time. This law is regarded by some as a “patient’s bill of rights”.
