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New England Puritan minister Cotton Mather broke with superstition by advancing physical explanations for mental illnesses over demonic explanations (salem witch trials)
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Philippe Pinel released the first mental patients from confinement in the first massive movement for more humane treatment of the mentally ill.
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The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII), Which is a forrunner for the American Psyiatric Associtation, was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin clinically defined "dementia praecox", later reformulated as Schizophrenia
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the First World War is often identified with the rise of the disorder of “shellshock.”
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Electroencephalogram invented
Psychiatrist Hans Berger invents the electroencephalogram. The device graphs the electrical activity of the brain by means of electrodes attached to the head. -
Electroshock therapy was first used on a human patient.
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The World Psychiatric Association was founded
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Russian-born physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman discovered rapid eye movement Sleep (REM), founding modern sleep research.
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Psychology advances to the technological age with the emergence of e-therapy.
