Running Head: TREATMENT OF MENTAL ILLNESS 1
TREATMENT OF MENTAL ILLNESS 2
The Treatment of Mental Illness and its Progression
Chloe Sanders
Piedmont College
The Treatment of Mental Illness and its Progression
Over time, psychologists have had spouts of great interest in the study of abnormal psychology and the treatment of those considered to be suffering from mental illness, but there have also been periods of disregard towards what we have learned in regards to this previously. The acknowledgement of abnormal psychology and the mentally ill first began with the Romans and Greeks; Hippocrates and Plato were among the first to study the mentally ill and look into the treatment of them. Plato's view was that these people should not be treated the same as others when it came to criminal circumstances; they should be made to pay for damages caused by their crime, but should serve no punishment. He also thought that they should be treated in hospitals within their community.
This was one of the first treatments of the mentally ill, and is in many ways much more advanced than the treatment in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries (Plante, 2013).
Another major early treatment method was the use of herbs. Not only did the Greeks and Romans use herbal treatments, but the Colonial Americans did this as well. Herbal medication was more of a home remedy, but it was a common treatment for those considered mentally ill. During these times though, the herbal treatment was thought to be effective because they believed evil spirits caused this mental illness and abnormal behavior and these evil spirits were thought to not like some of these herbs such as St. John's Wort (Plante, 2013). Even today, some herbal remedies are thought to help contribute to the treatment of mental...