Stone Age

 Mental disorders were treated by the process of threphination. It is a surgical intervention

where a hole is drilled, incised or scraped into the skull.

460-377 BC

 Philosophers including Hippocrates, Corpus, Plato, Aristotle and Galen opted about the nedd in
treating mental illnesses and they also realized that trauma and distress often were root causes
of many disorders.

Early Renaissance

 Individuals with mental disorders were often treated at home.

 Local Parishes began providing financial aid to the families impacted by mental illness.
Community Mental health programs stove to provide gentle and respectful treatment.
 As recognizing mental health disorders became more common during the early Renaissance,
hospital and churches started operating as asylums to provide widespread treatment. The
patients in these asylums often had a low quality of care due to overpopulation in the facilities
and a staff that was lacking of knowledge about mental illness. That soon changed with the
introduction of scientific questioning during the humanism movement.
 The humanism movement began.

18th Century

 The beginning of the New Age Reform.

 Commitment to asylums was still considered the norm, and inhumane treatments were
being phased out through education about mental illness.
 William Tuke, an English businessman and philanthropist opened the York Retreat in
England, a house that sought to provide humane treatment for those with mental illness.
 The 18th century was full of early psychologists who worked to educate doctors on mental
illnesses and how to appropriately treat them. Philippe Pinel, a French Physician performed
an experiment in 1972 that translated into improved quality of care for patients. He helped
deploy moral management , which sought to treat those displaying abnormal behaviours
based on their social, individual and occupational needs.

19th Century

 1808- Franz Gall creates a content piece about phrenology, which is the belief that the shape of
a person’s skull reveals personality traits.
 1878- G. Stanley Hall became the first American to graduate with a doctorate in Psychology. Hall
went on to create the American Psychological Association.
 1886- Sigmund Freud developed personality theory, which has continued to impact abnormal
psychology treatment methods today.
 Dorothea Dix played an instrumental role in the field of Abnormal Psychology during 19 th
century. She investigated the challenges faced by mental health centers and discovered
underfunding and an unregulated system contributed to demise of humane treatment.

20th Century

 By the end of World War II, most psychologists specialized in particular subdisciplines,
with abnormal psychology being a chosen field of study.
 Carl Rogers created client-centered therapy which seeks to tailor treatment methods
according to the patient’s life.
 1952- The first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders was published.
 Abnormal behaviors were viewed according to two perspectives: psychogenic and
somatogenic.
 Once hypnotism gained widespread popularity in 20 th century for its effectiveness in
treating abnormal behaviors, the psychogenic perspective became widely accepted.
  In 1963, the Community mental Health Centers Act was created to strengthen the
future quality of patient care.

Abnormal Psychology Today

 Research indicates Omege 3 and Omege 6 fatty acids counteract the onset of psychiatric
disorders, particularly paranoid schizophrenia.
 Research seek to cure “incurable” mental health disorders.
 Holistic Treatment methods are highly encouraged.
 Abnormal Psychology research today places a heavy emphasis on the study of brain matter
and neurotransmitters.