PHL100Y1 Lecture : PHL 319 Lecture 1
Document Summary
Freud starts with abnormalities and proceeds to draw conclusions about normality. Up to the beginning of the 17th century not much had been down about mental conditions. In fact they often tended to regard the mad as superhuman. I guess referring to the vague line between genius and madness. They are seeing a reality that the rest of us cannot see. Suddenly though, this view changed in the 17th century in europe. People who were judged insane were put into general hospitals" which were basically large jails for madmen. This happened because the insane had come to be regarded as sub-human, rather than super human. The institutions were like zoos where the insane were on exhibit much as animals. Only in the early 19th century did a third idea arise; namely that insanity was a kind of sickness. This is when mental hospitals began to exist along with psychiatry.