Throughout history, mental health issues have been treated with suspicion, sometimes leading to fear. Some conditions, including depression and schizophrenia, have been blamed on supernatural forces; others, such as anxiety, have been associated with certain bodily functions. Conditions such as ‘melancholia’ and ‘hysteria’ have also been identified as imbalances of body fluids, while ‘maniacs’ have been known as people who have lost control of themselves. For a long time, these conditions have been considered untreatable. Sufferers were often labeled insane and locked in institutions, including the infamous Bedlam.
Early psychology professionals, such as Charcot and others, thought that many mental disorders had physical causes. This idea was taken further by other psychologists like Kraepelin, who in 1883 published his Textbook of Psychiatry. In his works, he described what we would now call dementia praecox or schizophrenia. While giving a clear explanation of how it occurs due to physical abnormalities in the brain structure of a patient, Kraepelin laid the groundwork for modern psychiatry and the treatment of mental disorders.
