What is the history of psychiatry?
The history of any discipline is informed by many factors and psychiatry is no exception. Cultural influences and prominent characters from Socrates to Sigmund Freud helped create broad psychological theories such as cognitive theory and psychoanalysis. These theories laid the foundation for better understanding of mental disorders and developing therapies that could help treat these disorders. In the 21st century, psychiatry became a recognized medical discipline using medicines, technology and improved diagnostic and therapeutic models.
In the past, the supernatural paradigm and mysticism ruled. Many mental illnesses were therefore attributed to the holding of evil forces, and those who were affected, were often tortured or locked in rooms of similar dungeon. There was also a witch hunt, with the accused persecuted and sometimes executed. Psychiatry would not really start as a scientific persecution until about the 19th century, when the theory such as behavioralism and psychicaanalysis competed for recognition.
ExaminationThe human mind has gained intellectual support with ancient Greek philosophers, namely Socrates. This philosopher first emphasized the importance of the ability of the human being to understand and doubt, and believed that all the truth and knowledge went through thinking. Socrates, along with individuals, such as the French scholar of the 17th century, Rene Descartes, introduced rationalism into studies of the human mind. These early approaches in the history of psychiatry were precedents of cognitive therapy that emphasizes restructuring of defective and damaging beliefs and thought processes.
On the contrary, individuals as Aristotle and English philosopher of the 17th century John Locke supported an empirical view of the passive mind that gains all knowledge through experience. In other words, the mind is an empty slate on which the external stimuli -story story is written. This faith laid the foundation for another significant shift in the history of psychiatry at the end of 19. One hundredFlying: Behaviorism. Defenders like John Watson and B.F. Skinner emphasized control of abnormal human behavior through external means such as reward and punishment.
In addition, the Austrian doctor of the 19th century Sigmund Freud developed preliminary remnants of psychotherapy with its psychoanalytic theory. This theory focuses on the conflict between the conscious and unconscious consciousness of the individual. Unconscious, instinctive impulses are represented by a force called ID. When individuals suppress these feelings of conscious consciousness, they can turn into mental neurosis. According to this theory, most of the personality and behavior of the individual is dictated by the battle between ID and compliance with the law and corresponds to the superego; Freud believed that recognition and confrontation with these conflicts could alleviate negative consequences.
Contrastfreud, Humanism Alfred Adler and Abraham Maslow - evolved after Freud's psychoanalytic theory - strongly claims that each individual is born well. Adler points out how the final goal of each person inLife strives for an ideal, perfect self without defects. All individuals also work for the common good of society and therefore have a high degree of social interest. Similarly, Maslow focused on improving an individual through self -realization or developing characteristics such as creativity, motivation, empathy and lack of negative effects. Both Adler and Maslow supported a new therapeutic approach in the history of psychiatry: Optimistic, the future oriented therapy that tried to build on strengths rather than emphasize weaknesses.
Many other individuals in the 19th and 20th centuries also contributed significantly in the history of psychiatry. Frenchman Jean-Martin Charcot paid scientific attention to the use of Hypnosis's psychiatry and was also among the first to investigate the role of the nervous system in facilitating mental abnormalities. Other scientists like Karl Wernicke and Cesare Lombroso further examined the biological roots of mental problems, thereby introducing an objective medical aspect into previously subjective psychology. Individuals like James McKeen Cattell and Emile Kraepilin gave psychiatry an even greater scientific credibility by inventing testing psychological measures and emphasizing hard data. Carl Jung, Alfred Banduro and others also considered the impact of culture and other social influences on individual personality and behavior.
Among the significant advances in the history of psychiatry 20. Century is a real rise of cognitive approaches, continuing emphasis on contributions to the biological and nervous system of mental disorders and worldwide, formal recognition of psychiatry as scientific discipline and persecution of work. Medical progress and advent of neurology as independent disciplines have led to psychopharmacology in which psychiatrists are prescribed drugs that help to remedy the nerve imbalances. During this time, the first formal manuals were introduced to provide descriptions and instructions for diagnosing various mental disorders. New medical technologies such as digital scanning machines also offered methodsy for diagnostics. With the opening of official psychiatric organizations around the world and creating educational programs specifically focused on psychiatry, it benefited and generated countless branches of psychiatric subdisciplines and therapeutic specialties.