AP Photo Archive
Adult patients at the Pennhurst State School and hospital at Spring City, near Pottstown, Pa., spend their days and nights in cribs in the ward where they are destined to spend the rest of their lives. The school superintendent, Dr. Leopold A. Potkonski, left, and State Rep. Edwin G. Holl, chairman of the Montgomery County delegation, tour the ward Nov. 16, 1965. Patients were among the 3,182 people in the state institution for mentally retarded with a maximum capacity of only 2,163.

Because of this perception, the healing process of those with such disorders included physical punishment, thinking the evil spirit wouldn’t want to possess a body that was being injured, exorcism, bleeding and social ostracism.

It wasn’t until the 17th century that treatment centers came about. Initially, these asylums meant a place of refuge, a safe haven from the scorn of society. But with lack of funding, these asylums deteriorated into prison-like housing facilities, according to www.mdx.ac.uk.

Patients were put in bare rooms and chained up if needed for their protection. As an attempt to keep these institutions operating, caretakers would charge admission, and for a nominal fee the public could come and see the “lunatics,” according to www.ohiou.edu.

The 19th century introduced a new approach to treatment of the mentally ill referred to as “Moral Management.”

“The Moral Management approach was based on the belief that the environment played an important role in the treatment of the mentally ill. As a result, mental institutions started creating a more domestic feel. It didn’t do a whole lot for treatment methods, but it did provide better treatment on the level of humanity and caring, or so we learned in Abnormal psychology” said Mike Duerden, a junior from Rexburg.

It was not until the end of the Civil War when a great number of the country’s veterans came home from the war with emotional and mental problems that the country took a more acute interest in their treatment. This is also when some initial drug treatments such as Opium came about, according to www.ohiou.edu.

After a few years these institutions became very popular and over-populated. Due to lack of funding, the conditions regressed to those of early asylums. Methods of treatment, such as electro-shock therapy and ice-water baths became popular again. Also, lobotomies became a common medical practice according to www.mentalhealthworld.org.

Lobotomies were relatively easy procedures, and effectively altered the mental state of the patient, so they were used frequently. This procedure was performed by drilling into the skull through the eye socket and severing the frontal lobes of the brain.

“In my Abnormal psychology class we learned that when they performed lobotomies, they destroyed the nerve pathways between the thalmus and the frontal lobes. It was believed that severing these connections would decrease the violent/aggressive behavior. Of course there were a lot of side affects, such as hyperactivity, impaired learning abilities—sometimes even death,” said Danny Millward, a senior from Fremont, Calif.

Though lobotomies were commonly practiced, electro-shock treatment continued to be a dominant practice. It wasn’t until 1954 that a medication, called Thorazine, was pioneered as treatment. A few other drugs also became available, significantly decreasing the average time spent in institutions.

At about this same time, multiple congressional bills and acts were passed, all improving on and ensuring appropriate treatment in asylums, as well as providing more funding. This marked the beginning of the government’s role in caring for the mentally ill, according to www.ohiou.edu.

Since then many laws have been passed ensuring the rights of disabled and mentally ill persons, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“These laws are some of the biggest factors that have changed the way people are reacting. It’s sad that it takes a law to ensure appropriate behavior. It reminds us that the natural man continues to manifest in the attitudes of society. Fortunately, the fact that we do have these laws shows that other people have overcome tendencies of the natural man and have kindness at their core,” said Richard Cluff, an abnormal psychology professor at BYU-Idaho.