ABSTRACT

The history of the evolution of concepts of mental illness is a fascinating chapter in the general history of ideas. It impinges on such diverse areas as social philosophy, medicine, religion, and several of the social sciences. The more recent history appears to have evolved from a period of certainty about at least some mental disorders to an ongoing period of questioning and doubt. That period was probably ushered in by empirical science, and it reflected the emerging view that mental disorders could be studied in the manner of a laboratory science. When the methods of science were applied to the mental disorders, it soon became apparent that many beliefs originally based in superstition and later in clinical observation had to be discarded.