Timeline by Kinsley Harrison

Ancient times

kh23767 — 2023-12-04 16:05:38 UTC

Supernatural reasons Ancient psychological disorders appear to have had supernatural causes as their main explanation.

Greece and Rome

kh23767 — 2023-12-04 16:43:43 UTC

Greeks such as Socrates and Homer were not immune from citing “the gods” as a potential source of madness.

Middle Ages

kh23767 — 2023-12-04 16:46:10 UTC

Europe Supernatural explanations for problems again became very popular across Europe.

In 1025, a Persian by the name of Ibn-Sina (Avicenna) completed a five-book encyclopedia of medicine known as The Canon of Medicine that takes a scientific approach to disease and whose descriptions and treatments of abnormality include but go far beyond the humoral explanations.

Renaissance

kh23767 — 2023-12-04 16:47:25 UTC

Because people who were "mad" were considered to have lost their ability to reason, they were considered to be less than human and more like animals.

Late 18th century–mid-19th century

kh23767 — 2023-12-04 16:49:03 UTC

Spread of moral therapy This sort of treatment spread throughout Europe and the United States, with many institutions developing along the lines of the York Retreat and moral therapy.

Mid-19th century–early 20th century

kh23767 — 2023-12-04 16:50:43 UTC

The ideals of moral therapy gave way to the practicalities of treating large numbers of people in large institutions with relatively small numbers of staff.

Mid-20th century–present

kh23767 — 2023-12-04 16:52:18 UTC

Developments continued in biomedical and psychological understanding and treatment of abnormality.