Society in the Middle Age recognized the mentally ill and determined that causation to their mental state was due to witch craft, sorcery, or demons. People with mental illnesses often fell into the devil associated category due to their lack of control in their surroundings.

If a person’s “soul” displayed negative actions or anything that went against the church, then that person was associated with the devil. In this era, people believed that mental actions were governed by the soul. While the fate of psychology seemed to be making some progress, the potential development of the science was isolated in the Middle Ages when the church held tremendous impact over people’s actions and beliefs. Up until this point, while the cultures wanted to explore what controlled the mind and behavior, they were often viewing it from a religious stand point rather than a scientific one. This is one of the first attempts of early civilization developing a sense of more modern day psychology. Romans developed a theory that mental illness was caused by the tightening of pores in the brain. While the Romans did not treat the mentally ill as harshly, they showed no sympathy for them either. This said, as the mentally ill were viewed as victims of the Gods wrath, people of Greece would go so far as to shun them, lock them away or put them to death. If they felt someone was being punished by the Gods, their loyalty to their faith led them to outcast that person. People in ancient Greece heavily worshipped and respected numerous Gods and Goddesses.

In ancient Greece, people who were mentally disturbed were believed to be punished by the Gods. Moving on to the Greeks and Romans, their belief system also influenced their treatment on the mentally ill. However, because in this culture they did not differentiate between mind and body, the treatment for mental issues was identical to treatment for physical illnesses. To treat the psyche, Egyptians would have physicians, magicians, and priest work with the mentally ill. They also believed that mental illness was originated from spirits or demons. Any physical or mental illnesses were related into one issue. Dating back to 6000 BC, the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart and mind were one. They did so by relating the problems of the mentally ill to what they already knew and believed. To start, while the study of psychology may not have been official for hundreds of years, the human race still tried to understand the human brain. As we delve through history, we learn how older societies attempted to use psychology but did not use these four structures to treat people suffering from mental illness. These structures help psychologist and psychiatrist treat mentally ill patients. These four factors are the key components to the overall flow of psychology in modern day. The main goals of psychology are description, prediction, explanation and application. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. While psychology has evolved greatly over the last two centuries, society is able to see the paradigm shift in how the mentally ill population has been treated throughout history before the study of psychology reached the advanced state that it is at today. This is the struggle the mentally ill faced before the evolution of psychology. In fact, instead of help, they leave you shunned, or lock you away or even perform torturous procedures on you. Now imagine that struggle with no one to help you through it. No cures or remedies to help you function like the rest of the world. I enjoyed taking my audience through how different culture and eras dealt with mental health and the science of psychology from the beginning of time up to present day.Ĭan you imagine being trapped in your own body? Everyone has their bad days, but how would you feel being trapped in your mind with no control. With this paper I used numerous sources for research and create a timeline like structure, of the shift in psychology, throughout my paper. I chose to discuss the paradigm shift in psychology and explain how the world of mental health has evolved throughout the centuries. The goal of this assignment was to analyze a paradigm shift and elaborate on its effect in history.

Paradigm shift psychology