READ 093 Lecture Notes - Moral Treatment, Neurology, Falsifiability
Document Summary
Treatment of mental health goes back a long time. Legal system of guardianship used by the romans. Specialised institutions to treat mental illness during the middle ages. 17th century: mental illness not viewed as curable. 18th century: viewed as curable & beginning of psychiatric classifications: also characterised by psychiatrists in many countries who wanted to move beyond mental institutions that treated patients inhumanely (e. g. philippe pinel) In 1840: first social movement in favour of the mentally ill (lead by dorothea dix) Aetiology and (lack of) treatment of mental illness in the 19th century. Until this time, the cause of mental illness was unknown biological rather than mental explanations. Lack of effective treatment, insufficient illness classification, and psychiatrists suffering from a bad public image intent the category of nervous diseases . Invention of nervous diseases as a diagnostic category important for the invention of a broader concept: central health.
