History of Schizophrenia

There have been times when it was a great deal more challenging than it is now to suffer from schizophrenia. Mental illness in all its several forms has been with us since the beginning of time but the way that it has been understood and treated has gone through multiple transformations.

Schizophrenia has only been considered a distinct mental disorder for the last 100 years. In 1887 a German physician separated it from the morass of mental afflictions and dubbed it "dementia praecox".

  "Praecox" which means earlier was intended to distinguish it from the dementia associated with advancing age and the progressive loss of the faculties.

Before that all mental illnesses were bundled into the same category with only one real common feature: that they be outside of what was considered 'normal'. The earliest recorded documentation of symptoms that we today recognize as mental disorders date back as far as the second millennium before the birth of Christ. The Book of Hearts that has been traced back to Pharaonic Egypt lists symptoms that are associated with schizophrenia.

But there is chilling evidence that mankind has been battling symptoms of mental disorders for as long as humans have lived on the planet. Ancient skulls have been excavated that bear holes in them that appear to have been made while the person was alive. It has been assumed that the holes were a misguided attempt to provide an escape for the evil spirits that it was believed were the cause of such imbalances.

Superstition has dogged the treatment of mental illness until quite recently and it is still believed to be rife in some parts of the world. There was a time when all defects, physical and mental were lumped together in one unfortunate bundle and blamed on the presence of evil spirits or the displeasure of the gods. Either way you wouldn't want to find yourself amongst this unfortunate number.

One of the more humane and respectful attitudes towards the mentally afflicted belonged to Imhotep a VIP and esteemed physician who lived around 2600 BC. He developed a form of sleep therapy where sufferers would spend the night in temples after which their dreams would be studied and interpreted by the priests and priestesses of the time.

In Greek times Plato made a famous distinction between what he considered to be two different kinds of madness: that of divine origin and a more mundane and infinitely less desirable physical one. Those with divine madness were revered, they were the prophets that could single handedly lead the people and inspire artists and poets to greater heights.

The early Jewish prophets were sometimes thought to suffer from this divinely originated madness. Later mystics from both the east and west are also considered to have suffered from versions of this divine madness.

Around the Middle Ages it became common to exorcise evil demons by subduing the afflicted using various different and inhumane methods like confining them to the stocks or simply binding them in such a way that they would cease to be a problem to all the "normal" people. Women who suffered some of the symptoms of what we now diagnose as schizophrenia were often considered to be witches and burnt at the stake.

As medicine continued to develop, institutions for the confinement of the mentally ill began to appear. These places were notorious for good reason and it is believed that healthy people could be transformed into the insane through undergoing the treatments that were favored at that time.

In the 17th century psychiatry began to gain momentum and so did the idea that shock treatment was the answer for almost all varieties of mental disturbance. During this odious practice patients were physically restrained while deluged with copious amounts of cold water.

In 1909 a Swiss psychiatrist, Eugen Bleuler changed the name of the cluster of symptoms known as dementia praecox to the familiar term, schizophrenia. The word originated from the Greek term for a split mind that referred to the fragmentation of an individual's thinking and feeling processes.

Primary symptoms were listed as: abnormal associations and affect, ambivalence and autistic behavior. Though a diagnostic profile was now available the illness continued to confound professionals regarding the causes and treatment.

With the introduction of antipsychotic medication like Chlorpromazine the aim to render patients manageable reached new heights. Considered a "chemical lobotomy", the drug worked to neutralize symptoms of the disorder as well as life itself. Those afflicted would be transformed into sedated zombies, more dead than alive.

The latter half of the 20th century heralded a more humane and holistic attitude towards the mentally disturbed. The anti-psychiatry movement questioned all preceding treatments and the role of counseling and behavioral therapy in the treatment of schizophrenics became the norm. The goal changed from sedating patients into manageable but helpless shadows of their former selves into preparing them for a functioning role in society.