H istory hasn’t been kind to mental health patients until around the start of the 21st century. Even though most mental health care providers of their time did have good intentions, often, the offered treatments have been experimental, immoral, and mostly very harmful.

It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that the field of psychology started paying more attention to ethical treatment. Yet, at the same time, horrifying studies were still done.

During most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the idea that mental health patients should be locked away from society was dominant. People could be involuntarily admitted to mental health asylums for a slighted of reasons, which often put them into terrible conditions. Some had the idea that isolation and restraint would calm down and cure patients — however, most mental asylums were purely built to provide housing for ‘the insane’, and some even believed that people with any form of mental issues should be punished, and therefore locked up in asylums for the rest of their lives.

A lobotomy involved removing certain nerve connections or parts of the brain. In other words, different parts of the brain were (partially) separated from each other. The most popular variant of performing this type of treatment was poking a pointy instrument through the eye socked into the frontal area of the brain.

Lobotomies were mostly intended for patients that did not respond to other types of treatments — such as shock therapy — but became very popular in the 1900s in America due to the fact that most patients were much easier to deal with after. Removing certain brain connections did calm down patients and left them easier to handle, but patients themselves were forever stuck with other kinds of damage. In most cases, patients reported the inability to feel emotion, inability to concentrate, and passivity. However, the results were sometimes much worse — some patients could not function properly at all or simply died from the surgery.

The invention of the lobotomy itself was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1949, which lead to a dramatic increase in the number of performed lobotomies.

Trephination (also referred to as trepanning) is possibly the oldest known form of treatment for the mentally ill. A lot of skeletons have been found that contained a circular hole in the skull, some stemming back to 7000 years ago.

To perform a trephination was to drill or scrape a hole in the skull using various kinds of instruments. The treatment was also used to relieve headaches and to treat people who were considered to be possessed.

As it was often observed that high fever would help patients get rid of certain symptoms and that fever could kill bacteria, doctors in the late 1800s used malaria as a form of therapy with the intention to give patients a fever. This form of treatment was mostly used for patients that suffered from syphilis bacteria. Surprisingly, in most cases of syphilis, the treatment worked. After the high fever had passed, patients were given the drug quinine to cure malaria and could often return home.

However, the share of patients dying from malaria was high. The treatment was also used on patients with mental health problems, which often came out worse than how they were initially feeling.

This form of treatment was also awarded a Nobel Prize for its effectiveness in curing syphilis.

During the middle ages, the mentally ill were more often than not treated by means of praying and exorcisms. However, as witch-hunting was a common practice, anyone behaving abnormally could have been accused of being a witch. People with mental illnesses were often victims of witch trials. During these trials, people often tried to get some sort of confession out of the accused, which was largely obtained through torture. The trials would eventually result in death. Obviously, this can’t even be called a medical treatment whatsoever but is still worth noting as it was a way in which people with a mental illness were treated.

During the 1600s, some ideas from ancient Greek times about health were adopted. Hippocrates first introduced the theory of the four humors: bodily elements that needed to be balanced in order to promote good health. The idea of purging the body from excess fluids arose in the second half of the 17th century, with the aim of bringing the four humors into balance once again.

The treatment was most commonly done in the form of bloodletting: removing blood from a patient’s body in a controlled way. However, vomiting was also used. The treatment was used for people with mental as well as physical problems. Dependent on the symptoms, the form and place of treatment was determined. For example, bloodletting from a place behind the ears was thought to relieve headaches.

Bloodletting continued to be a common practice through later parts of history.

Many of the above-listed treatments were performed involuntarily.

It’s easy to judge earlier forms of medical treatment, but we must not forget that most ideas were based on limited knowledge, and have in turn provided us with very valuable medical insights.

From the times that the pyramids were raised to the end of the cold war in this publication you will find it all. This is a publication that has been created to tell the stories of forgotten battles and fortunes that have crafted the world that we live in today.

Clinical Psychologist and aspiring doctor. Passionate about psychobiological wellbeing and in love with history. https://linktr.ee/Juliaspsychologyplatforms