Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present the opposing views and tensions that characterised the evolution of psychiatry and understandings of mental health during the 20th century and the early decades of the 21st century. To this extent, the principal figures and entities that occupied the main fronts during these debates are presented during a description of the journey undertaken by psychiatry during the aforementioned years. Quotes from various original texts or their translations have been included in an attempt to recreate the spirit of the periods under study. This historical exploration provides further insight into the multifaceted world of mental health, its illnesses, treatments and the role of a number of influencing bodies that were crucial into shaping this discipline across the centuries.
Highlights
The status of mental illness during the Middle Ages and prior to the 18th century is one that triggered many questions and contemporary debates
This paper is intended to trace the origins of mental illness and psychiatry with a focus on the concept of psychiatric diagnosis as it evolved during the 20th century and the early decades of the 21st century
Their preoccupation with these flaws led to an echo of Kraepelin’s fundamental belief that only an empirical, biologically-based evidence base can improve the outcomes for those who exhibited symptoms related to mental illness (Decker, 2007)
Summary
The status of mental illness during the Middle Ages and prior to the 18th century is one that triggered many questions and contemporary debates. In the 1960s and early 1970s, these psychiatrists, who became known as the neo-kraepelins expressed their dissatisfaction with a discipline that seemed to be unstructured, non-medical and non-scientific Their preoccupation with these flaws led to an echo of Kraepelin’s fundamental belief that only an empirical, biologically-based evidence base can improve the outcomes for those who exhibited symptoms related to mental illness (Decker, 2007). One of the critics - Summerfield (2008) - discussed the significance of culture – a case in point being the South African ailment of thinking too much which has similar symptoms to depressive disorder but a different meaning in this particular culture This led Summerfield (2008) to state that “Western psychological discourse is setting out to instruct, regulate, and modernise, presenting as definitive the contemporary Western way of being a person. Some of the main debates and movements that characterise the mental health field shall be discussed and critiqued
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