ABSTRACT
In spite of current criticisms regarding the shortfall in services for the mentally ill, people with mental illness are significantly better treated and accepted now than they have been at any time in the past. Whereas most people in the contemporary Western world would not regard mental illness as self-inflicted, this has not been always the case. Just like other forms of disability, the early Christian understanding of mental illness was that it represented a punishment for sin or that the afflicted individual was involuntarily possessed by the devil. The distinction between mental hospitals, general hospitals was removed by the Mental Flealth Act 1959, so psychiatric units could be located in general hospitals. The discovery of antipsychotics and antidepressants in the 1950s brought a new therapeutic optimism to the management of people with severe mental illness and reduced the need for long admissions. Despite the progress made in understanding and treating mental illness, sufferers continued to be stigmatised, even ill-treated.
