ABSTRACT
Mental disorders have been recognized in Egypt for millennia; 5000 years ago they were considered to be physical ailments of the heart or uterus, as described in the Ebers and Kahun papyri (Okasha, 2001). These disorders carried no stigma, as there was no demarcation then between psyche and soma. In the fourteenth century – 600 years before similar institutions were founded in Europe – the first psychiatric unit was established, in Kalaoon Hospital in Cairo.
