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No new understanding of mental illness was made during the Dark Ages. Mentally ill patients were often placed in overcrowed asylums and tortured as a means of control.
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Salem witch trials start. Indicating again a mystical approach, mentally ill people were believed to be witches and put to death as a way to control the condition
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A different way to look at mentally ill people, the book written by Jahann Weyer attempted to discredit some beliefs that all mentally ill people were possessed by demons. Natural causes may be the reason for some abnormal behavior. Jahann Weyer was riduculed for his beliefs by politicians and religious figures.
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Considered the father of American psychiatry, Benjamin Rush moved away from the mystical or religious and approached mental sickness from a scientific point of view.
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Philippe Pinel is given credit as the primary figure in the humanitarianism movement. Pinel's approach to treatment was kindness and sensitivity. He believed mentally ill people should be treated as sick patients and not possessed by demons.
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Dorthea Dix began a movement to inform the public on how mentally ill patients were treated. It took almost 40 years but she was successful seeing 32 psychiatric hospitals opened.
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Kraepelin believed some mental conditions were the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain and others were a metabolism irregularity.
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The American Psychological Association develops a code of ethics in treating mentally ill patients
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President George W. Bush guarantees mental health coverage by promoting legislation
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800 BC - Mainly a mystical approach, physicians would encourage relaxation and sleep. Once alseep, mental disorders would be cured within their dreams. Diet and exercise would sometimes be included in the treatment process.
400 BC - A more scientific approach, bodily fluids would be drained depending on what type of disorder was to be cured.