Mental Illness in the 19th Century

            The article that I read was “Mental Illness in the 19^th Century” by Carrie Hughes. This article talks about how people first blamed witchcraft and demonic possession for starting mental illness. This caused people to be put into jail, sent to alms houses, or to remain home without any treatment. During the late eighteenth century “moral treatment” had become the common treatment in the United States. This treatment showed that insanity caused brain damage on the soft and fragile brain. After realizing this, doctors started removing patients to suitable areas where they could become healthier. Awhile after that, overcrowded hospitals caused treatments to be put on hold, where the ill continued to get worse.

            The central point of this article was to show you how doctors today treat patients differently then back in the day. It explained the difference of cures that they were lacking to cure the ill. Lastly, it showed the lack of care that humans had against the mentally ill.

            The reaction that I had against this article was, I felt bad for the people who had this mental illness. I also felt bad because many methods of the treatment did not do anything to the ill. In the earlier day, they would lock the sick up for doing nothing wrong but being in poor health. My other reaction was, I felt that doctors had no care for their patient which is wrong. Your patients should always come first, no matter how hard your day was.