Abstract
From the ancient times, there are three basic approaches for the interpretation of the different psychic phenomena: the organic, the psychological, and the sacred approach. The sacred approach forms the primordial foundation for any psychopathological development, innate to the prelogical human mind. Until the second millennium B.C., the Great Mother ruled the Universe and shamans cured the different mental disorders. But, around 1500 B.C., the predominance of the Hellenic civilization over the Pelasgic brought great changes in the theological and psychopathological fields. The Hellenes eliminated the cult of the Great Mother and worshiped Dias, a male deity, the father of gods and humans. With the Father's help and divinatory powers, the warrior-hero made diagnoses and found the right therapies for mental illness; in this way, sacerdotal psychiatry was born.
Highlights
Three basic trends in psychiatric thought can be traced back to earliest times: (a) organic approach, the attempt to explain diseases of the mind in physical terms; (b) psychological approach, the attempt to find a psychological explanation for mental disturbances; and (c) sacred or magical approach, which can be further divided into the animistic, mythological and demonological models [1]
The magical sacred approach forms the primordial foundation for any psychopathological development because it reflects a modality of interpretation of reality that is innate to the prelogical human mind
In Homer's poems, we find the terms ‘kradiē’ or ‘ētor’, which are translated with ‘heart’
Summary
Three basic trends in psychiatric thought can be traced back to earliest times: (a) organic approach, the attempt to explain diseases of the mind in physical terms; (b) psychological approach, the attempt to find a psychological explanation for mental disturbances; and (c) sacred or magical approach, which can be further divided into the animistic, mythological and demonological models [1]. In ancient Greece, until the sixth century B.C., the complex oneiric life was considered a premonitory divine sign (Odyssey ω 9–12) [20] During this period, a crucial change took place: the dream, from an important element of the relationship between man and god, became the expression of inner truth, useful to divine and to attain a more profound knowledge of the human soul [46]. The other form of Athenian playwright was comedy, with the most prominent and popular writer being Aristophanes In one of his comedies, The Wasps, he describes the methods used to cure a patient's mental disorder [60]: persuasion with soothing words, washing and purification, incubation in the temple of Asclepius in Aegina, participating in mystic rites (wild Corybantic dance and music), and if all else had failed, constraint in the house. Many believed that the slain of Apis calf was the reason for his madness, while Herodotus adopted a more mundane explanation: he suffered from congenital epilepsy or ‘sacred disease’ and he drank alcohol excessively [13]
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