Timeline of Mental Illness Discoveries
Overview of Mental Illness in the 20th Century:
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Since the beginning of time, people with mental illnesses were shunned by their community and therefore hidden away and ignored like dirt under a carpet. In addition to this removal from society, the conditions at the asylums were inhumane as well. Early Hospitals would try different techniques to “cure” these patients. Many of which were inhumane, such as forced isolation and forced immobility. This type of treatment occurred in the 19th century. However, the 20th century was not much better. At this time, the development of treatments was being researched which led to the discovery of ETC and similar treatments (Nenadović 6-8).
In the 1950s, people finally recognized the inhumane acts of the asylums. People at this time started pushing for deinstitutionalization. This deinstitutionalization pushed the medical community towards community-based care rather than being stuck in an asylum in extremely unsuitable conditions (A Brief History of Mental Illness and the U.S. Mental Health Care System 2). The focus of this type of treatment was to manage the symptoms and ultimately help function in society despite their illness. In addition to this new type of treatment, the discovery of chlorpromazine helped send “untreatable” patients back into society because it targeted specific issues within the body for these patients while all previous medications only numbed the patient. (Drake, R.E. et al. 428, 430) As well, in the 1950s doctors were trying to discover reasons behind these unexplainable diseases and many textbooks at the time theorized “that schizophrenia was caused by early problems in the interaction between child and mother.” (Drake, R.E. et al. 432).
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In 1963 the Community Mental Health Centers Act was established which stated that only people who were a danger to themselves or others would be taken care of in an institution (A Brief History of Mental Illness and the U.S. Mental Health Care System 2).
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The overall treatments in the asylums during the late 19th century and the early 20th century were shaped by a physical view of these illnesses. These doctors believed that the illnesses were physical like all others at the time. However, Boris Sidis, a psychological doctor from Harvard University, began hypnotizing his patients which led to their realization of memories they had buried deep and in addition eliminated their symptoms (A Brief History of Mental Illness and the U.S. Mental Health Care System 3).
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Overall, the medical community in the 20th century did not fully understand mental illness. This led to inhumane treatments of patients and many people to suffer because their illness was not understood. Illnesses such as schizophrenia, PTSD, and depression were all increased after WWI and in turn, this forced the medical community to try and understand the real cause for these illnesses. Unfortunately, the people suffering from these illnesses at the time suffered even more or were tortured due to medical practices that were untested.