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knowledge of the early ancestors is very limited. History shows that the Chinese, Egyptians, Hebrews, and Greeks considered abnormal behaviour as personified to a demon of God who had taken possession of the person. The individuals symptoms determined whether they were affected with good spirits or evil ones. Such people were also admired and respected as; they were believed to have supernatural powers. With reference to the Bible, most of the possession was considered to be by the evil one as it was considered as a punishment from God. The treatment for demonic possession was Exorcism, which included various techniques for casting evil spirit out of an afflicted person (Robert Carson, 2008). These techniques included magic, prayer, incantation, noise-making and the use of horrible-tasting concoctions (Robert Carson, 2008)
included injuries to the head, excessive use of alcohol, shock, fear, adolescence, menstrual changes, economic reversals and disappointment in love. Abnormality during the middle Ages In this era, the scientific aspects of Greek medicine survived in the Islamic countries, and history proves that the first mental hospital was established in Baghdad in A.D. 792, which was later followed by others in Damascus and Aleppo. An important figure in the Islamic medicine was Avicenna from Arabia who wrote about hysteria, epilepsy, manic reactions and melancholia. However, this era proved limited scientific study into abnormal behaviour in Europe, and the treatment of mentally disturbed patients was often guided by ritual or superstition. Due to such environment, it was difficult to arrive at a clarified understanding of abnormal behaviour. This age also so the rapid influence of theology and the concept of sin. This was further briefed in two most important event- mass madness and exorcism. Mass madnessThe last half of the Middle Age in Europe saw the advent of mass madness- the widespread occurrence of group behaviour disorders hat were apparently cases of hysteria (Robert Carson, 2008), which included dancing maniacs, jumping and convulsions. One such episode came to be known as a disorder called Tarantism which included an uncontrollable impulse to dance that, was often attributed as tarantula or wolf spider (Robert Carson, 2008). However, these rites were banned with the advent of Christianity, but were still practiced by few cultures in Europe. The rural areas were afflicted with Iycanthropy- a condition in which people believed themselves to be possessed by wolves and imitated their behaviour (Robert Carson, 2008). This condition was so severe, that even deaths have been reported. Mass madness reached its peak in the fourteenth and fifteenth century which also saw oppression, famine, and epidemic diseases. Exorcism and witchcraft In the middle ages, management of the mentally ill patients was left to the Clergy. Early part of this period treated the mentally disturbed with kindness and the treatment consisted of prayer, holy water, sanctified ointment, touching of relics, visit to holy places and mild forms of exorcism. Exorcism is symbolic acts performed to drive out the devil from persons believed to have possession. This act may seem ancient to us, but reports show that few people or cultures to be specific still practice exorcism and believe it be a good treatment to treat mental illness. (n.d)
Imagine a situation you witness where you see people jumping , throwing brooms around, clapping their hands, and dancing. Some might find it humorous, even scary for some.. but well say for our early ancestors-this was a common phenomena - something called abnormal behaviour. So lets first look at what is abnormality? - Abnormality (or dysfunctional behavior), in the vivid sense of something deviating from the normal or differing from the typical (such as an aberration), is a subjectively defined behavioral characteristic, assigned to those with rare or dysfunctional conditions. Defining who is normal or abnormal is a contentious issue in abnormal psychology
(n.d).