How did the field of psychology emerge?
How did the field of psychology emerge?
From the 12th till 16th century, abnormality was considered as something dangerous in the body of human beings and the only means of making a person "normal" was to use cruelty. The treatment was highly bizarre, frightening, and unthinkable in the 21st century. In the 16th century, most mental disorders were supposed to be caused by demonic possessions, satan worship, or even because of divine intervention. The nervous disorders were treated by exorcism, the mentally ill who were deemed witches had much more to suffer. They were literally burned, had holes drilled through their skulls, purposefully opening a vein to bleed out the demon, etc.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the psychological community finally made some advances in mental illnesses and their treatments. Humanitarianism was finally introduced and it led to freedom within the mentally ill. The chains were removed from the patients and they were studied if they can behave in a better way. Positive results were found and the early psychologists also started training in the kind treatment, which again brought positive results. However, in many parts of the world, the inhumane treatment still continued to treat the mentally ill.
In the 19th century, more and more activists were starting to argue in the favor of human rights and wanted to bring a revolution in the way the mentally ill were treated. Dorothea Dix, a nurse, and a social reformer saw the plight of the mentally ill and set out to change the attitudes of the people. She became famous for bringing people's attention to the inhumane practices that were being followed. She established 32 mental hospitals in different countries and tried to change the treatment practices to more humanitarian nature.
The 20th century saw much bigger advances in the concept of abnormality and the mentally ill. The National Institute of Mental Health was established. Finally, the age of deinstitutionalization began. Institutionalizing was considered as the last resort for the patients. Freud's theory of psychoanalysis caught attention worldwide and more and more people started researching the subject of mental disorders and abnormality. Talk therapy and psychoanalysis became very popular in this century. Destigmatization about mental health also started which led to more research and development of more theories and schools of psychology.
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