Editing Insanity (section)

==Historical views and treatment==
Madness, the non-legal word for insanity, has been recognized throughout history in every known society. Some traditional cultures have turned to witch doctors or shamans to apply magic, herbal mixtures, or folk medicine to rid deranged persons of evil spirits or bizarre behavior, for example.<ref>Weinstein, Raymond M. (2007) "madness" in George Ritzer (ed.) ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology'',  [[Blackwell Publishing]], 2007, pp. 2693-2695</ref> Archaeologists have unearthed skulls (at least 7000 years old) that have small, round holes bored in them using flint tools. It has been conjectured that the subjects may have been thought to have been possessed by spirits that the holes would allow to escape.<ref>Porter, Roy (2002) ''Madness: A Brief History'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2002, p.10, {{ISBN|0-19-280266-6}}</ref> More recent research on the historical practice of [[trepanning]] supports the hypothesis that this procedure was medical in nature and intended as means of treating cranial trauma.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Andrushko|first=Valerie A.|author2=Verano, John W.|title=Prehistoric trepanation in the Cuzco region of Peru: A view into an ancient Andean practice|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|date=1 September 2008|volume=137|issue=1|pages=11–12|doi=10.1002/ajpa.20836|pmid=18386793}}</ref>

===Ancient Greece===
The [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] appeared to share something of the modern Western world's secular and holistic view, believing that afflictions of the mind did not differ from diseases of the body. Moreover, they saw mental and physical illness as a result of natural causes and an imbalance in [[Humorism|bodily humors]]. [[Hippocrates]] frequently wrote that an excess of black bile resulted in irrational thinking and behavior.<ref>Weinstein 2007, p. 2693</ref>
[[File:Casa de locos.jpg|thumb|240px|[[Francisco Goya|Goya]]'s ''[[The Madhouse|Madhouse]]'', 1812-1819]]

===Ancient Rome===
[[Ancient Rome|Romans]] made other contributions to psychiatry, in particular a precursor of some contemporary practice. They put forward the idea that strong emotions could lead to bodily ailments, the basis of today's theory of [[psychosomatic]] illness. The Romans also supported humane treatment of the mentally ill, and in so doing, codified into law the principle of insanity as a mitigation of responsibility for criminal acts,<ref>{{Cite book
  | last =Craighead
  | first = W. Edward
  | title = The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science
  | publisher = [[John Wiley and Sons]]
  | year = 2002
  | page = 941
  | isbn = 0-471-27082-2}}</ref> although the criterion for insanity was sharply set as the defendant had to be found "''non compos mentis''", a term meaning "not sound of mind".<ref>{{Cite book
  | last = Robinson
  | first = Daniel N.
  | title = An intellectual history of psychology
  | publisher = [[University of Wisconsin Press]]
  | year = 1995
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/intellectualhist00robeho/page/305 305]
  | url = https://archive.org/details/intellectualhist00robeho/page/305
  | isbn = 0-299-14844-0
  }}</ref>

===From the Middle Ages onward===
The [[Middle Ages]] witnessed the end of the progressive ideas of the Greeks and Romans.{{clarify|date=April 2011}}

During the 18th century, the French and the British introduced humane treatment of the clinically insane,<ref>{{cite book|last=Scull|first=Andrew|title=Madhouses, Mad-doctors, and Madmen: The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian Era|year=1981|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]]|location=Philadelphia|isbn=0-8122-7801-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/madhousesmaddoct0000unse/page/105 105]–116|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/madhousesmaddoct0000unse}}</ref> though the criteria for diagnosis and placement in an asylum were considerably looser than today, often including such conditions as [[speech disorder]], speech impediments, [[epilepsy]], and [[Major depressive disorder|depression]] or being pregnant out of wedlock.

Europe's oldest [[Psychiatric hospital|asylum]] was the precursor of today's [[Bethlem Royal Hospital]] in [[London]], known then as ''Bedlam'', which began admitting the mentally ill in 1403 and is mentioned in [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[Canterbury Tales]]''. The first [[United States|American]] asylum was built in [[Williamsburg, Virginia]], circa 1773. Before the 19th century, these hospitals were used to isolate the mentally ill or the socially ostracized from society rather than cure them or maintain their health. Pictures from this era portrayed patients bound with rope or chains, often to beds or walls, or restrained in [[straitjacket]]s.