Topic > Evolving Cultural Perspectives on Mental Illness

Throughout history, mental illness has been viewed by most cultures around the world in a religious or spiritual context. Mental illness was misinterpreted as possession by the devil, spirit or as a curse, or as an attack of witchcraft or black magic, the mentally ill were sometimes mislabeled as witches. When the causes of mental illness were little known, religious, magical and mystical healings became very popular with talismans, talismans and other deceptive means. In European countries during the medieval period, holes were drilled in the head to release evil spirits, and mentally ill people were burned alive (Kemp & Williams, 1987). In Morocco it was thought that mental illness was "caught" like a cold. While walking casually, you may absentmindedly step on some witchcraft on the path or accidentally drink it, “catching” a mental illness. In a sense, blaming evil takes responsibility away from the individual who is mentally ill because it implies that the victim is innocent and bears no blame for their condition. But on the other hand it generates fear, both of the sick individual and of the possibility of becoming afflicted like the victim. Victims of mental illness were often ostracized, chained, or locked in dungeons, which made their conditions worse rather than better. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe 17th century is known as the age of reason and the 18th century as the age of enlightenment as reason and the scientific method came to replace faith and dogma to a large extent. The need to support claims using scientific data and evidence has been emphasized by scientists and philosophers. Such a scientific attitude towards mental disorders contributed to a scientific understanding of mental illness and fostered greater compassion for people suffering from mental illnesses. In the eighteenth century, “madness” began to be seen as something beyond a person's control. For this reason, thousands of mentally ill people confined to the dungeons of daily torture were released into asylums where forms of medical treatment began to be studied. Today the medical model is the driving force in the diagnosis and treatment of psychopathology. However, the global scenario is far from scientific in understanding mental illness. Today in some African cultures it is believed that carelessly stepping on witchcraft substance can cause mental illness (Asonibare, 1999). People belonging to Buddhism and some forms of Hinduism who adhere to the philosophy of reincarnation and karma believe that mental illnesses are caused by wrong actions in their previous births. Some uneducated Vietnamese attribute a variety of supernatural causes to mental illness, including spirit possession, black magic, astrological misalignment, or the Buddhist philosophy of Karma (Nguyen, 2003). For the indigenous people of the Cordillera in the Philippines, in addition to a variety of causes of illness, evil spirits and witchcraft are the main causes of mental illness (Janetius, 2003). Carl Jung's archetypal psychology sheds further light on this perplexing, culturally insensitive phenomenon of class. The archetypal patterns that are in our minds are part of the cognitive foundations of human beings. These archetypal patterns in the human mind could be compared to a computer operating system on which education as software performs functions. Inherited archetypes e.