You Won’t Believe How Mental Illness Was Treated—#7 Is Truly Terrifying

Have you ever wondered how people treated mental illness hundreds or even thousands of years ago? Before doctors understood the brain, people tried all kinds of strange and scary ways to "cure" mental disorders. Many believed that demons, curses, or sins were the cause of mental illness. This led to some of the most shocking and painful treatments in history—from drilling holes in skulls to forcing patients into comas or freezing water baths.

As time passed, beliefs slowly shifted. Science started to replace superstition, and more humane treatments began to emerge. But before that happened, many people suffered terrible experiences in the name of healing. This article explores some of the most disturbing mental health treatments from history. Some may shock you. One might even terrify you.

I. Ancient Beginnings: Trephination and Demon Beliefs

Thousands of years ago, people believed that mental illness came from evil spirits trapped inside the body. To “cure” someone, they sometimes drilled a hole into the person’s skull. This process, known as trephination, was intended to allow the spirits to escape. It may sound terrifying, but this practice dates back over 7,000 years. Researchers have even found ancient skulls with clear signs of this surgery.

In places like Mesopotamia and Egypt, people also linked mental illness to curses or the “evil eye.” Treatments included wearing charms or using magic spells. According to research, some cultures thought that staying clean and pure could prevent mental illness. Others, like the Egyptians, encouraged fun activities like music and games to help people feel better. While these ideas were far from science, they show how early humans tried to make sense of the mind.

II. Hippocrates and the Humors

In ancient Greece, a doctor named Hippocrates helped change how people viewed mental illness. He didn’t believe it was caused by evil spirits. Instead, he believed the body had four main fluids, or “humors,” and mental illness happened when these fluids were out of balance. According to research, these four fluids were:

• Blood
• Phlegm
• Yellow bile
• Black bile

To restore balance, doctors tried several treatments, including:

• Bloodletting
• Purging
• Special diets
• Changing the patient’s job or environment

This shift in thinking was important. For the first time, people began to see mental illness as a physical issue, not something caused by magic or sin.

III. Religion, Sin, and Exorcism

For many centuries, religion played a big role in how people treated mental illness. Instead of using medicine, people believed that mental struggles were a sign of sin, witchcraft, or possession by evil spirits. Because of this, religious leaders—not doctors—were often in charge of care.

Treatments focused on cleansing the soul, not healing the mind. These included:

• Exorcisms
• Forced confessions
• Long prayer sessions
• Pilgrimages to holy places
• Isolation from others

According to historical records, some people were even tied up or beaten during these religious “cures.” The goal was to remove the evil or punish the person for being “immoral.” Sadly, these actions often caused more pain than healing. But at the time, people believed they were helping.

IV. Asylums and Inhumane Confinement

When families could no longer care for someone with mental illness, they were often sent to asylums. These places were meant to help, but many became overcrowded, dirty, and cruel. Some asylums were just old prisons where patients were locked away and forgotten.

Patients in these places faced horrible conditions. Many were:

• Tied up with chains or iron collars
• Left in filth with no clean water or toilets
• Starved or barely fed
• Watched like animals or put on public display

One famous example was La Bicêtre in France. Patients were shackled to walls and forced to sit in their waste. Another was Bedlam in London, where visitors came to watch patients like they were part of a circus.

People with mental illness were not seen as human—they were treated like problems to hide. This harsh treatment caused deep suffering and made recovery nearly impossible.

V. Lobotomies and Surgical Horror

In the 20th century, doctors began using brain surgery to treat mental illness. One of the most famous—and frightening—methods was the lobotomy. This surgery involved cutting parts of the brain’s frontal lobe to try and change a person’s behavior.

The lobotomy was created by Portuguese doctor António Egas Moniz, who even won a Nobel Prize for it. But the results were often tragic. Many patients:

• Lost the ability to speak or move normally
• Became like “zombies,” unable to think clearly
• Suffered permanent brain damage
• Died from the procedure

In the U.S., a doctor named Walter Freeman performed over 4,000 lobotomies. He even did them in people’s homes and on children as young as 12. Freeman wasn’t a trained surgeon, but that didn’t stop him. His quick and easy method became popular for a while, but it left many people broken.

Lobotomies are no longer used today, but they remain a powerful reminder of how dangerous “quick fixes” can be when it comes to mental health.

VI. Shock-Based “Cures”

In the 1900s, doctors believed that shocking the brain or body could “reset” mental illness. These treatments were risky and painful, and many patients were left worse than before. One method, called insulin coma therapy, used large doses of insulin to put people into a coma. Doctors thought this would rewire the brain, but it often led to:

• Brain damage
• Weight gain
• Death

Another treatment was called Metrazol shock therapy. It caused violent seizures by injecting a powerful drug. Many patients suffered broken bones or spine injuries during the seizures.

Later came electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), where electricity was used to trigger a seizure. At first, ECT was done without anesthesia or muscle relaxants, which made it frightening and painful. Patients often experienced:

• Confusion
• Memory loss
• Fear of treatment

While modern ECT is now safer and still used in some cases, the early forms of these shock treatments were terrifying. They show how desperate people once were to find a cure, even if it meant risking everything.

VII. Fever and Infection-Based Treatments

In the late 1800s, a doctor named Julius Wagner-Jauregg had a shocking idea—he believed that giving people a high fever could cure mental illness. At first, he tried this on patients with syphilis by infecting them with malaria. The fever from malaria killed the syphilis bacteria, and then doctors treated the malaria afterward.

But Wagner-Jauregg didn’t stop there. He tried the same method on patients with schizophrenia, hoping the fever would help. It didn’t. Instead, many patients got worse. Some even died. Records show that around 15% of the people who received this treatment didn’t survive.

What began as a medical breakthrough ended up becoming one of the most dangerous experiments in mental health history. Fever therapy showed how far some doctors were willing to go, even when the risks were deadly.

VIII. Gendered Abuse and Sterilization

In the early 1900s, women with mental illness were often treated unfairly just because of their gender. Many doctors believed that being emotional or outspoken made a woman “unladylike” or mentally unstable. This led to harmful and unnecessary procedures.

Some women were forced to undergo:

• Lobotomies
• Clitoridectomies (surgical removal of part of their genitals)
• Forced sterilization

According to experts, women were “preferentially sterilized and lobotomized” simply for not acting the way society expected. In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to sterilize people labeled “unfit to have children.” This included poor people, people with disabilities, and those with mental illness.

By the time this ended, about 70,000 Americans had been forcibly sterilized. Many didn’t even know what was happening to them. Doctors lied, saying the surgeries were for something else. These cruel practices show how dangerous it can be when people are judged based on fear, not facts.

IX. Physical Restraints and Rotational Therapy

Some of the methods used to control people with mental illness were not just harsh—they were dehumanizing. One common tool was the straitjacket, a tightly fitted garment that trapped a person’s arms across their body. Doctors believed this would keep patients calm and stop dangerous behavior. But instead of helping, it often caused fear, pain, and humiliation.

Another strange method was rotational therapy. American doctor Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, thought spinning a person in a chair could cure their mental illness. He believed it would improve blood flow in the brain.

During this therapy, patients were:

• Strapped into a chair
• Lifted into the air
• Spun quickly in circles

Instead of healing anyone, this treatment caused dizziness, vomiting, and even loss of control over bladder and bowel movements. These “therapies” were based more on guesswork than science, and they left many people feeling worse than before.

X. Drug Misuse and Toxic Remedies

Before modern medications, doctors used dangerous substances to treat mental illness. These drugs were often addictive or poisonous, but people didn’t yet know the risks. Some of the most common substances included:

• Mercury, used to treat mania, despite being highly toxic
• Opium and morphine, given for anxiety or depression
• Alcohol-based tonics, which caused dependence instead of healing

Doctors believed these drugs could calm the mind or fix chemical imbalances. But in many cases, the drugs only made things worse. Patients became addicted, confused, or physically sick. Some even died from an overdose or long-term damage.

These early treatments remind us how important it is to test medicines carefully. What people thought was helping at the time often caused more harm than good.

XI. Reform and the Rise of Humanitarian Care

After years of cruel and harmful treatments, some people began to fight for change. In the 1800s, reformers like Philippe Pinel in France and William Tuke in England believed that people with mental illness deserved kindness and respect. They removed chains, cleaned facilities, and treated patients with care.

Later, Dorothea Dix pushed for better hospitals in the United States. She helped convince the government to build 32 state psychiatric hospitals. These hospitals were created to:

• Protect patients and the public
• Treat people who could be helped
• Improve life for those with long-term illness
• Fulfill a moral duty to care for the mentally ill

At the same time, new ideas like psychoanalysis became popular. According to Foerschner, Sigmund Freud believed mental illness came from hidden thoughts and feelings. He used methods like:

• Dream analysis
• Hypnosis
• Free talking (also called “free association”)

These changes marked a turning point. People started to understand that healing the mind takes time, care, and trust, not punishment or fear.

XII. Modern Shifts and Lasting Impact

In the 1950s, a new kind of treatment changed everything—medication. The first breakthrough was a drug called chlorpromazine. It helped calm people with serious mental illness and allowed many to return to their normal lives. This was the start of psychopharmacology, the use of medicine to treat mental health conditions.

With the success of new medications, doctors began moving away from large hospitals and toward care in the community. This was called deinstitutionalization. It aimed to improve people’s lives by letting them live at home while receiving treatment. But according to studies, this plan didn’t always work. Many patients ended up homeless or without support.

Today, we still face challenges in mental health care. New problems—like social media stress and screen addiction—are on the rise. As Dr. Eve Leeman says, mental illness is not just about the brain. It affects the whole person. Learning from the mistakes of the past helps us build better treatments for the future.

Conclusion

The history of mental illness treatment is filled with pain, fear, and misunderstanding. People once believed in spirits, used harmful surgeries, and locked patients away. Over time, ideas changed, and care slowly became safer and more respectful. But even today, there’s still more to learn. How can we make sure people get the help they truly need? By understanding the past, we can avoid repeating it. Mental health deserves kindness, knowledge, and support, not fear. The more we learn, the closer we get to real healing.