Overview

At the opening of the nineteenth century the view of insanity was just beginning to shift from unacceptable deviancy to a form of treatable illness. During earlier periods those with mental illness were held in suspicion of demon possession and other unearthly states. Public mistrust and fear of the insane resulted in their confinement, perpetually shackled in miserable cells. In the spirit of the Enlightenment an objective assessment of insanity permitted social and medical efforts to examine the causes and possible cures of the afflicted. A leading goal in the care and treatment of mental illness was to shepherd sufferers back into to the fold of normal society in the interest of preserving social order. Though the causes of mental illness were not...