Historical Background

Question 1

Early period?

20,000 BC

Answer 1

• theoretical approach of Animism
• natural world consists of demons/spirits
• different behaviour seen as possession, caused by evil-doer
• different behaviour seen as punishable
• treatment of exorcim, trepining, ostracism

Question 2

Greek period?

Answer 2

• approach of Somatogenesis
• emotional distress isn’t punishment but has natural bio causes
• categories of of distress were mania, melancholia, phrenitis
• deviance in thinking/behaviour assumed to be due to a brain/body pathology
• balance of body fluids affect mental state so balancing them through tranquility, sobriety, abstinence

Question 3

Greek and Roman period?

Answer 3

• Somatogenic approach (illness due to nature, not god’s punishment)
• natural processes for recovery
• prognosis following careful history and not taking of symptoms for review
• some consideration of psychological aspects to emotional distress and treatment

Question 4

Dark ages and Medieval era?

Answer 4

• little development in understanding the causes or treatments for MHP
• causes for events seen as having spiritual dimension
• main approach was a belief of demonology so treatments consisted of prayers, touching relics, laying of hands
• western society becomes urbanised and political bureaucracy systematised
• so society develops classification systems for organising people, legal definitions of differences are developed
• in the UK legally defined as ‘born fools’ and treatments were ‘keeping them safe until returned to reason’, seizing land and placing in church run hospitals

Question 5

Medieval period?

Answer 5

• context of social upheaval (plagues/famines etc)
• lack of scientific understanding and superstition, thought as punishment from gods
• led to scapegoating and putting women on trial for witchcraft while they may have had psychosis or simply transgressed moral codes

Question 6

Renaissance and Elizabethan period?

Answer 6

• science

- some considerations of how events cause emotional distress (e.g. Shakespeare)

Question 7

Towards the Industrial revolution?

Answer 7

• increased and dislocated population
• distressed and disadvantaged had less local support and became more visible
• new explanatory theories developed (e.g. Animalism)
• explicit de-humanising, proposed that the mad couldn’t control themselves and didn’t care for heat and cold
• used to justify appalling treatments and exclusion to confine and control
• hospitals being turned into government-run asylums

Question 8

Industrial revolution?

Answer 8

• asylums became theatre for the rich
• un-scientific treatments proposed (e.g. MHP is due to excess blood resulting in bloodletting)
• treatments consisted of fright, forced vomiting, cold baths, spinning chairs

Question 9

Towards enlightenment?

Answer 9

• quaker movement in UK (started retreats for the vulnerable for rest and some mild work)
• in France, in line with egalitarian ideals of the French Revolution Pinel proposed a social theory of vulnerability (those with MHP were normal people and should be approached with compassion, institutionalising people exacerbated

Question 10

Into the Victorian era?

Answer 10

• exacerbated by the eugenic movement

- people with intellectual/physical disabilities/mentally unwell were seen as not fit and scapegoated

Question 11

Into 20th Century?

Answer 11

• Eugenics became the pseudo-science behind the rise of fascism in western countries
• advances on biological approach (proposed chemical imbalance, established systems of classification according to medical knowledge not social prejudice)
• advances to psychological approach (biological symptoms of psychological distress)
• advances in socio-behavioural approaches (fears/phobias can be unlearnt, Watson)

Question 12

Towards current era?

Answer 12

• following WW2 acceptance of human rights and need for social justice
• re-development of civil rights movements
• bio-psycho-social accounts of MHP are currently used with diagnostic criteria and treatments reflecting factors

Question 13

Current era?

Answer 13

• inbetween social political views and advances in science that policies towards vulnerable people are shaped
• clinical psychology where the aim is to support and enable people towards being well psychologically and socially
• current treatments and interventions need to be developed and used ethically