Long... Long.... post.. =D
posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Hi people, wow its been quite a few days since I last blogged, oh wells, I'm hardly home nowadays cause I don't like to be at home so yeah, I hardly get on the com and so I don't really blog. Oh wells, I have been farting non-stop for like 3 days, I really wonder why, poor me, and I have been feeling super tired, no matter how much rest I get, poor me again... zz anyways yesterday was the first day of school for me. The new time table for this semester is super hectic and I have lesson from 10am - 5pm on my birthday!!! poor me x3 sobs.... anyways some interesting things I've learnt this week on the history of "madness", mental illnesses or psychopathology.
In olden days, theologians, scholars, philosophers believed that all mental illness are the result of supernatural forces like angry gods, possession by demons and the likes. And these are some of the ways people use to "cure" mental illnesses in chronological order (hopefully I'm right haha)
In the times of demonology(I think thats the earliest times), mental illnesses are believed to be results of demon possession and so, the method of treatment was to drive the demons out of the body. They tried doing this in numerous ways, for example using exorcism rituals like force feeding vile brews to the victim, by flogging or starving the victim. It was believed that once the body was rendered useless, the demon will leave the person. It wasn't too useful I guess, if they cause the person to become literally "useless"(disabled) due to the flogging or if the person dies of starvation. Yet an even more brutal way was to actually crack a hole in the skull of the "mad person" to let the evil spirits out. Well, the "mad" people usually dies of massive blood loss before the demons can get out.
Then in 5th Century B.C. they believe that mental illness is due to physical diseases, it was the time of Hippocrates, heres the definition from Dictionary.com (Greek physician who laid the foundations of scientific medicine by freeing medical study from the constraints of philosophical speculation and superstition. He is traditionally but inaccurately considered the author of the Hippocratic oath.). And they believed that "madness" could be cured by balancing the four humors in the body i.e. blood, black bile, yellow bile, & phlegm.
Then years down the road, demonology made a come back and their main treatment this time were using exorcisms. And in the 1300s mental illness was deemed to be the result of witchcraft. Hallucinations and delusions were seen as evidence of witchcraft. Those who were "thought" to be guilty were bound and dunked in water consistently. The rationale was that you are a witch if you can survive the water dunking. Well, then of course those who died are not witches but that doesn't make much of a difference anymore does it? Anyways at that era, the main treatment for mentally ill were to beatings or death by hanging or burning. Most accused were not mentally ill, but forced to admit symptoms they didn’t have.
In the 1500s there were crusades and the mentally ill are finally housed in asylums. The asylums were originally leprosariums that were converted when leprosy was on a decline. But the conditions were bad, there were little food, little patient care and spreading of diseases. At a point of time, asylum/s became tourist attractions. The mentally ill were placed on display for all to see.
The main treatment at that time were were draining of blood and purposely "frightened". Letting of blood was thought to bring the patient to his/her senses but that of course, left many dead because of the excessive loss of blood and they also believed that a patient can be "frightened" back to his/her senses and cure the "madness".
It was not until the 1790s where mentally ill people, were treated morally. And of course today, mentally ill people are treated with medications and psycho-therapy, thank God for that.
Well well this is like 1/2 my lecture last night. An interesting story my prof told us last night...
He was sitting for his clinical examinations by which he was required to counsel a guy (fake client) with a given case, and he needs to diagnose the guy and give his examiners a diagnosis at the end of 40mins. Well he was given a case where the guy came with a gun, a knife and after 40mins he went on to his examiners (not singaporean) and gave his diagnosis. He said that the patient was sufferring from some anti-social personality disorder and when questioned why, my prof mentioned the weapons, some other things and told the examiners that another reason was also because he is homosexual. Well, the results, of course is that he failed, only to later find out that one of the examiner was actually, you know, homosexual and because he doesn't see homosexual as a problem, of course he failed my prof hahaha. Anyways, the moral of this story was that "IT PAYS TO KNOW WHO YOUR EXAMINERS ARE" hahaah.
Oh by the way, by now I believe that most of us, young and old, would have known to a certain extent how costly medical expenses in Singapore can be. Guess what? There is good news for us (well maybe), It is cheaper to be mad in Singapore than to be sick! =D If you don't believe me you can check out the prices to see a psychiatrist/psychologist at the IMH and compare it to a GP price or hospital prices =X... haha
*P.S. To all my friends that are working with youths, here is a quote from my prof's wife that really touched my heart,
"'No Kid is a Bad Kid' - many a times, they just need someone to show concern, believe and affirm them. I'm sure all of you can be that someone."!!
Let us learn to be patient working with young people(yeah it definitely ain't easy), and not follow in the footsteps of Job's counsellors - giving advice before making sure they understood the problem. Never try to win a person to your point of view until you are sure you understand theirs. (Proverbs 15:23) =)
Alrighty, uber long post =D have a blessed week!! =D
the time is right;
{7:43 PM}
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