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Chapter 3 - A Brief History of the Criminalization of Mental Illness

from Part I - Introduction/Description of the Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2021

By
Joel A. Dvoskin ,
James L. Knoll  and
Mollie Silva
Edited by
Katherine Warburton  and
Stephen M. Stahl
Katherine Warburton
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis
Stephen M. Stahl
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Summary

For a very long time, mental illness was viewed not as a disease, but as a manifestation of evil spirits. Confusion and apprehension have been the legacy view of mental illness, even as far back as ancient Greece. In 380 B.C., Socrates wrote in The Republic that “The offspring of the inferior…will be put away in some mysterious, unknown place, as they should be.” During the middle ages, an obsession with evil in the form of witches became prominent. The official practice guidelines for detecting evil and witches, the Malleus Maleficarum (1486), assisted inquisitors in finding evil lurking amidst women, the socially disenfranchised and those suffering from mental illness. In 1494, theologian Sebastian Brant wrote The Ship of Fools, which detailed the phenomenon of sending away persons with mental illness aboard cargo ships through the canals of Europe and overseas.

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Decriminalizing Mental Illness , pp. 14 - 29
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

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