Treatment of the Mentally Ill

Blog created by: Alex Zelin, Stephanie Lichiello, Christy Tyrrell, and Taylor Warner

Mental illness is a broad term that refers to all mental disorders that are diagnosable. This includes disorders defined by changes in thinking, mood, or behavior (USDHHS, 1999). Our website will show the development of the treatment of the mentally ill and how beliefs about mental illnesses have changed over history. We will focus on 8 major time periods: the Stone Age, Ancient Egypt, Greeks and Romans, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, 19th Century, 20th Century, and our views today in the 21st Century. We will attempt to show the progression of treatment throughout each of these time periods. Not only has our society seen a shift from less humane to more humane treatment of the mentally ill, there has been an increase in the rights and freedoms for these individuals and an overall better standard of living.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1999). Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services, National Institute of Mental Health.