History of Madness

Author Name: Juliana Cummings

To chronicle madness means to chronicle the human being himself, with his suffering and pain. To understand the nature of mental illness and the ways to treat it. To accept patients in a way that comprehends their pain and shows compassion for them without viewing them as deficient individuals or a burden on society. How did humanity understand madness? And how did it treat it? At first, it saw it as an imbalance in bodily fluids, then as divine punishment or demonic possession, before modern concepts of the nature of mental illness emerged. Treatment began with severe beatings to exorcise evil spirits, bloodletting, herbs and prescriptions, then surgeries to remove parts of the brain, and finally insulin doses, electroshocks, chemical drugs, and mental institutions. True, what was life like there? But... doesn't madness remain a source of human suffering and creativity anyway?