ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a summary of ideas on madness within ancient Greece and Rome and provides an overview of the key writings of Socrates, Plato, Hippocrates and Aristotle in relation to madness. It considers the influence of ancient Greek ideas on later perspectives and contemporary thought and practice within mental health, looks at treatments used in ancient Greece, and deals with a consideration of the legacy of this important era. Some of the ancient Greek thought and practices are indistinguishable from ideas and practices within mental health. The Greek or Roman physician would therefore try to restore the balance of the humours by exposing the patient to treatments which have qualities that oppose those of the humours thought to be causing the disorder. Aside from using restraint or attempting to correct an imbalance of humours, philosophers and physicians in the Greek and Roman era tried a number of different therapies with the mentally ill.
