Mental illness in ancient Greece

Mental illness was an issue that many faced in ancient times much like in the modern world. In ancient Greece, many were divided over what they believed to be the cause of the illness that a patient faced. Some believed it was the punishment of the gods while others believed it to be caused a physical problem, this led to many variations of treatment ranging from prayer to surgery. It is only through centuries of understanding as well as modern technology that we are now able to diagnose and treat those afflicted properly.

Treatment of mental illness in ancient Greece was a new and experimental process due to the lack of the modern-day tools and technology that allow doctors to identify these mental ailments. Some ancient physicians didn't understand what part of the body was responsible for the strange behavior and turned to prayer and forgiveness from the gods. However most physicians understood mental illness was often caused by physical ailments such as an imbalance of the humors. Hippocrates was a physician that believed that the brain was the center of thought, intelligence and emotion. Because of this he and many others came to the conclusion that mental disorders came from problems with the brain. As time went on and physicians began to better understand mental illness they began to treat patients in different ways. “They were mostly (not entirely) concerned with psychoses (externalizing disorders such as antisocial personality disorder and drug and alcohol use disorders) rather than neuroses (internalizing disorders such as depression and anxiety), and they took into account a full range of hard-to-define symptoms including inappropriate behavior in public, delusions, delirium, and hallucinations. Treatments also covered a whole range from physical restraint to counseling; they did not make much use of pharmaceuticals.”

Treatment of mental illness in ancient times was often linked to religion. People who were stricken with madness were believed to be punished by the gods or possessed by demons. There are claims in the old testament of possession and madness cast upon people by god, these in reality may actually have been cases of mental illnesses that alter behavior such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or dissociative identity disorder. To people who had never encountered these diseases it would have been difficult to diagnose and identify the disease in a logical way backed by hard evidence because there was likely no evidence to refer to. Due to this lack of evidence and logic, many treatments were designed to help clear the body of any spirits that may have taken over the patient’s body. “Archaeologists have unearthed skulls datable back to at least 5000 BCE which have been trephined or trepanned—small round holes have been bored in them with flint tools. The subject was probably thought to be possessed by devils which the holes would allow to escape.”

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