Kylee Pitts

11/20/2022
PSC 255

Trephining
Timeline: Stoneage
Date of Event: 6000 B.C
Event: Trephining
Summary of Event: First known surgical method where part of skull was chipped away in
hopes evil spirits could escape.
Implications: 
Media:

   
      Social Perspectives: Back then people believed that the Dr’s knew best and didn’t
question it despite the percentage of people it killed.
      Legal and Ethical Issues: People were dying at disturbing rates with the procedure-
and also a hole in their skull was not going to fix your mental illness.
      Emerging Technology:6000 BC tools were just being invented making it a possibility
for trephining possible.
      Mental Illness Treatment: After people began to recover and realize that this
procedure was not helping with mental illnesses they put a stop to it… This was still used
for other treatments like lobotomies after a fall or hit to the head causing trauma to the
skull.

Naturalistic Explanations
Timeline: 500 B.C – 500 A.D
Date of event – 460 BC
Event – Naturalistic explanations
Summary of event – Between 360 BC & 370 BC romans began to state more naturalistic
; aka science based reasonings for mental illnesses rather than supernatural ones like in
the earlier years.
Implications:
Media:

Social Perspectives: Obvious that people prefer these reasonings instead of supernatural
reasonings that lead to exorcisms and trephining.
Legal & Ethical issues: NONE
Emerging technology: Medications – Hippocrates became more reliant on “modern
medicine” instead of superstitions
Mental Illness treatment: Big step in history to conclude that mental illness is not
spiritual and nothing you should be punished for.

Back to spiritual reasoning

Timeline Middle Ages
Date of event – 13th century
Event: Reversion to supernatural explanations
Summary of event People once again believed that many illnesses were due to
supernatural forces- no longer using practical & scientific reasoning.
Implications:
Media:
Social Perspectives: Many people believed that the reasoning behind the illnesses was
due to supernatural forces- a lot of this had to do with group hysteria, tarantism, and the
outbreak of many different plague outbreaks.
Legal & Ethical issues: There was a lot of unethical treatment including starvation &
immersion in water.
Emerging Technology : Print press had come and they were able to spread more news to
more people which lead to the mass hysteria due to the plague, war , and famine.
Mental illness Treatment – Led to different types of treatment including religious and
torturous methods

Witchcraft
Timeline: 15th – 17th centuries
Date of Event: 1484
Event: Pope Innocent VIII issued a decree to identify & exterminate witches;
Summary of Event: Publication officially confirming existence of witches which resulted
in thousands of innocent men, women, and children being beheaded, burned alive, and
mutilated during the period of witch hunts… (close to 100,000)
Implications:  (This is just a heading. Don't Enter Anything Here)

     Media: Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer 1487

      Social Perspectives: Prior to Malleus Maleficarum witchcraft was punished like any
other crime; only when it was seen as a dangerous and real phenomenon was it then
accepted to go on this “witch hunt”
      Legal and Ethical Issues: Killing these “witches” with no actual proof of them being
witches or doing anything wrong…
Emerging Technology: “Technologically speaking, the text of the Malleus
Maleficarum was able to spread throughout Europe so rapidly in the late fifteenth and
early sixteenth century due to the innovation of the printing press”

 Mental Illness Treatment: Led to advances in science & humanism- movement

emphasizing human welfare, worth & uniqueness of the individuals.

Humanism
Timeline 14th -16th centuries
Date of event - 1563
Event – The release of Johann Weyer book challenging witchcraft.
Summary of event -Johann Weyer released a book challenging the beliefs of witchcraft
and how people who were believed to be witches were actually just mentally ill. Church
& State criticized & banned the book, but it paved the way to a more humanistic
perspective for mental health.
Implications:
Media:

Social Perspectives: State and Church criticized and banned the book – many people
wanted to believe that they did no wrong when executing the “witches”
Legal & Ethical issues: State and church banned the book so many people were still
looking at mental illnesses as something to be punished for.
Emerging Technology: The printing press had just became recently available making the
book press possible.
Mental illness Treatment: Lead to more humane treatment for people with mental
illnesses

Moral Treatment
Timeline 18th & 19th centuries
Date of event: 1908
Event- Moral treatment movement
Summary of event: A shift to more humane treatment to mentally ill patients
Implications:
Media:

Social Perspectives: After the release of “A Mind That Found Itself” people became very
sympathetic and attracted interest and support of the psychiatric establishments.
Legal & Ethical issues: Asylums were still treating people like children not allowing them
to make any decisions for themselves.
Emerging Technology Establishment of many mental hospitals with better conditions
Mental illness Treatment: No more beating, starving, whipping, freezing people who are
mentally ill – find better ways like therapies.

Mesmerism & Hypnosis

Timeline : Late 18th Century
Date of event: 1843
Event : Breakthrough using Mesmerism
Summary of event: Mesmer was an Australian physician who used hypnosis as a way to
treat. Mental illnesses but was discredited due to his theatrical techniques of treatment.
Implications:
Media:

Social Perspectives: People did not like his theatrics when it came to his treatment so
they declared him a fraud
Legal & Ethical issues: Mesmer mistakenly stated that hypnotism made use of an animal
magnetism
Emerging Technology: Printing press
Mental illness Treatment; Hypnosis has been used since in ways to help treat PTD,
Anxiety & depression

Recovery Movement
Timeline: 19th century
Date of event- 1990s- 1990s
Event- Recovery movement
Summary of event – The movement to give people the chance to move on from their
mental health problems and get a life with a job and the ability to do things that they
before could not.
Implications:
Media:

Social Perspectives: Society realizing that people can recover from mental illnesses to go
on and get normal jobs
Legal & Ethical issues: Shouldn’t have taken to the late 1900s to realize that people with
mental health issues can be normal people with normal lives.
Emerging Technology – Electronics! It was much easier to see the implications of mental
health survivors and see how well they did with normal life after their treatment.
Mental illness Treatment ; Now when filling our job applications and school applications
it asks if you have a disability which included mental health problems

Drug Revolution
Timeline 20th century
Date of event- 1950’s
Event: Introduction of psychotropic medications
Summary of event : In the 1950’s many drugs were found to calm psychiatric patients
that had been hospitalized for years.
Implications:
Media:

Book origins of psychopharmacology

Social Perspectives: Due to the medical advances of new medications many people were
able to focus on therapy with their new medications helping and no longer had to stay in
confinement in mental hospitals.
Legal & Ethical issues: Many medications still had their side effects especially in the early
days of medications – often times your body becomes reliant on medications
Emerging Technology- New drugs & vaccinations cured diseases & mental illnesses.
Mental illness Treatment – Lithium & Chlorpromazine helped patients with
schizophrenia, depression, phobias, and anxiety.

Healthcare
Timeline: 21st century
Date of event: 2010
Event: Enactment of mental health & substance abuse parity legislation
Summary of event : Insurance companies were no longer allowed to deny coverage to
someone with substance abuse problems or mental health issues.
Implications:
Media:

“Equality Act of 2010” by Han Sewell

Social Perspectives: This was a great breakthrough for mental wellness because people
didn’t have to hide their struggles or worry about going into debt to take care of their
mental health.
Legal & Ethical issues: None
Emerging Technology: Affordable healthcare act made it affordable to receive the proper
care needed to take car of mental health
Mental illness Treatment- No longer hiding the fact that one has a mental illness because
they can no longer be denied health care or jobs due to a diagnosis.
(Malleus Maleficarum - New World Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2022, from
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Malleus_Maleficarum)
Gregersen, E. (n.d.). History of Technology Timeline. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/story/history-of-technology-timeline

On Witchcraft: An Abridged Translation of Johann Weyer’s De Praestigiis Daemonum: Johann

Weyer, Benjamin G. Kohl, H. C. Erik Midelfort, John Shea: 9781889818023:

Amazon.com: Books. (n.d.-a). https://www.amazon.com/Witchcraft-Abridged-

Translation-Praestigiis-Daemonum/dp/188981802X

On Witchcraft: An Abridged Translation of Johann Weyer’s De Praestigiis Daemonum: Johann

Weyer, Benjamin G. Kohl, H. C. Erik Midelfort, John Shea: 9781889818023:

Amazon.com: Books. (n.d.-b). https://www.amazon.com/Witchcraft-Abridged-

Translation-Praestigiis-Daemonum/dp/188981802X

Origins of Psychopharmacology : From CPZ. . . book by Anne E. Caldwell. (n.d.). ThriftBooks.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/origins-of-psychopharmacology--from-cpz-to-lsd/

13663260/item/48249522/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItKe4kcjB-

wIVBIvICh3OrwBZEAQYAiABEgJiXfD_BwE

Smith, C. (n.d.). 10 Key Inventions and Innovations of Ancient Greece. History Hit.

https://www.historyhit.com/inventions-and-innovations-of-ancient-greece/

Study.com | Take Online Courses. Earn College Credit. Research Schools, Degrees & Careers.

(n.d.). https://study.com/learn/lesson/trepanation-overview-history.html

Sue, D., Sue, D. W., Sue, D. M., & Sue, S. (2016). Essentials of Understanding Abnormal

Behavior (3rd ed.). Cengage Learning.

The MIT Press Reader. (2021, June 11). A Hole in the Head: A Complete History of

Trepanation. https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/hole-in-the-head-trepanation/

The Roots of Holistic Health. (2017, January 10). Greece Is. https://www.greece-is.com/the-

roots-of-holistic-health/

Tong, S. (2021, July 9). Pandemics, plagues and innovation in history: the striking parallels

between COVID-19 and the Black Death. Marketplace.

https://www.marketplace.org/2021/07/08/pandemics-plagues-and-innovation-in-history-

the-striking-parallels-between-covid-19-and-the-black-death/

What is Mesmerism & Is It The Same as Hypnosis? | Saille Hypnosis. (n.d.).

https://www.saillehypnosis.com.au/blog/38-what-is-mesmerism-a-is-it-hypnosis

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, October 6). Moral treatment. Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_treatment