Mental Health Discovery
Ever wondered when mental health was discovered? The history of mental health can be heighted back to written records. The term had a substantial breakthrough in 400 BC when a Greek Physician, Hippocrates, started treating mental diseases as a physiological ailment.
The history of mental health begins in Europe during the Enlightenment age. In the Middle Ages, people with mental illness were offered freedom if they proved not to be dangerous. Besides, in the rest of the world, mental illness was treated poorly and was said to be supernatural.
The Awakening
Hippocrates at first rejected the notion that supernatural forces like demonic possession caused mental health sickness. The researcher instead thought that known occurrences in the human body caused an imbalance in thought processes and behavior.
The Physician believed that the main mental health imbalances were from the imbalance in the brain. Later, after continuous research, he classified that a deficiency caused mental disorders like mania, melancholia, epilepsy and paranoia.
The Research Phase
Later on, his research theorized that psychological health illness was due to deficiency or lack of balanced essential bodily fluids. For instance, Hippocrates stated that when an individual was temperamental, has too much blood in the body and thus required the bloodletting treatment.
The growth of mental health later on experienced notable historical advancements like:
In the 8th century, Arab Muslims recognized asylums for those suffering from mental disorders.
In 1843, William Sweitzer formulated the term mental hygiene in America.
Reconnecting to Hippocrates’ work, Isaack Ray of the American Psychiatric Association availed the definition of mental hygiene as the art of maintaining the mind against all happenings and influences figured to disintegrate its qualities and harm its energies and activities.
In 1908, Clifford Beers organized a psychological health disease reform movement using his autobiography, A “Mind That Found Itself.”
In 1946, the International Health Conference formulated the World Health Organization (WHO) and a Mental Health Act, which caused the establishment of the National of Mental Health (NIMH).
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Written by: Amedicc.com