How Did Christians Dealt with Mental Illness Before Therapy Existed?

[SailorWriter]

Since we have mental illness before therapy, it would be stupid to do nothing with it and just let it eat you up mentally. How did people (specifically Christians) dealt with mental issues before the modern therapy?

 

[Vinny37]

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[Since we have mental illness before therapy, it would be stupid to do nothing with it and just let it eat you up mentally. How did people (specifically Christians) deal with mental issues before the modern therapy?]

I agree that mental illness, like physical and emotional illness, can be a problem even for Christians. On a lite note, Crocodile Dundee made a good point (

), but seriously, good psychiatry can help, if the worldview of the professional does not mess up the profession: theism must be core, or meaning is out. C S Lewis wrote a chapter in Mere Christianity about the area of expertise of then modern psychiatry (Morality and Psychoanalysis: https://archive.org/details/MereChristianityCSL/page/n55/mode/1up?view=theater). Somewhat deeper is John White’s The Masks of Melancholy—he was a Christian psychiatrist.

To your Q, a simplistic answer might be, Suffer. I’m sure many did (think William Cowper), and for many Christians fellowship and devotion might have often ‘worked’. As White said, depression (and depressive illness) can have different causes thus different cures. By over relying on secular (ie common) psychiatry, probably many suffer who otherwise would find release and relief via the sacred, even through basic theism. And within victim mentality and general subjectivism, there is more underlying meaninglessness in western society and thus generated depression. But had they had it, many Christians would have been helped by the skills of psychiatry, even as they would have been had they had anesthetics and surgery hygiene.

 

[Christ_empowered]

In the mid to late 19th century the Quakers established asylums that practiced moral treatment. It meant having a decent living environment listening to sermons and being give constructive activities during the day. And…

It wasn’t a quick fix but something like 70 percent of people were discharged as anywhere from improved to fully recovered after 1 year. Thing is…

Society was different back then obviously. After 1 year most of those people probably had families and friends extended families they could return to and they could probably be quietly reintegrated into both the family and the community. That isn’t to say that those asylums were perfect…they weren’t and sometimes people were put in them just for the convenience of others just like today…

But…yeah. Regular schedule some moral instruction constructive activities…these things genuinely help.


Therapy? The success rates for the literally hundreds of different forms of therapy are abysmal. That doesn’t take into account the other problems with therapy…sexual abuse fraud over billing and confidentiality issues among others…

And the problems with the very concept of mental illness to begin with…

What is mental illness? How can the mind…which is a concept not a biological entity…be sick? Why are such illnesses diagnosed by checklists of behaviors? Why do some doctors insist that bipolar schizophrenia etc are brain diseases if they don’t show up on brain scans? If mental illnesses are just like physical illnesses why are people often only referred for mental health treatment when biological causes of distress have been ruled out?

On and on and on. Personally…I find the whole industry ridiculous and anti Christian in outlook and methods. This is especially true of psychoanalysis. Freud? Misogynistic atheist heavy cocaine user. Jung? Routinely sexually exploited young female patients, not to mention the occult components of Jungian psychoanalysis.

These days treatment for most people is the same sort of treatment for mental afflictions that poor and low status people have always been subjected to…

drugs confinement and shock treatments are still popular. Some hospitals are bringing back brain operations for various afflictions. And yet….

With all the drugs and various talking treatments suicide rates are mostly affected by social and economic factors not the wonder cures of the mental health industry. Some data indicates that both talking treatments and drugs can have lasting negative effects on people. Data seems to indicate that quality of life and actual recovery in schizophrenia is worse now than in the 19th century. Depression seems to be made more chronic by drugs and talk therapy. So…

to whatever extent one can one should avoid the mental health industry and also refuse to let their pseudoscience colonize your mind.

 

[Tenchi]

Since we have mental illness before therapy, it would be stupid to do nothing with it and just let it eat you up mentally. How did people (specifically Christians) dealt with mental issues before the modern therapy?

There have always been counterfeits of God's way to a serene, stable and joyful inner life. But not being of God, they always diverge from Him, making the system or process of obtaining inner peace, and the feeling of peace itself, more important than He is. God made us all, though, to find the truest inner peace, the deepest joy, the greatest fulfillment and the highest meaning in Himself. All who live according to the purposes for which they were made, that is, according to God's will and way, have no need of psychotherapy. God is far more than enough.

So, then, the one who knows God (Philippians 3:7-14), who believes Him (Hebrews 11:6), who loves (Matthew 22:36-38) and submits to Him (Romans 12:1; Romans 6:13-18; James 4:7), is the one who most enjoys Him. Such a person is filled with who God is, with His love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, patience, etc. (Galatians 5:22-23), and is thus the stablest, wisest, holiest, and most fulfilled of people. And, this person is also the only kind of person who is truly worshipping God, who is properly glorifying Him, and thus fulfilling the ultimate reason for their existence (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Sadly, such a person is increasingly rare in our ever-darkening world. The Church in North America is, instead, crowded with Self-lovers, people who have made God their mirror, not their Master, and are thus filled with all the neuroses, psychological pathologies and sin that being their own god, worshipping their own image reflected in the mirror they've made of God, always produces.

 

[Christ_empowered]

I dunno
Especially with severe diagnoses there’s often a lot of poverty abuse trauma…

Plus as dissident psychiatrist Dr.Thomas Szasz puts it by the early 20th century the church gave up the care of sick souls.

 

[SailorWriter]

To your Q, a simplistic answer might be, Suffer. I’m sure many did (think William Cowper), and for many Christians fellowship and devotion might have often ‘worked’. As White said, depression (and depressive illness) can have different causes thus different cures. By over relying on secular (ie common) psychiatry, probably many suffer who otherwise would find release and relief via the sacred, even through basic theism. And within victim mentality and general subjectivism, there is more underlying meaninglessness in western society and thus generated depression. But had they had it, many Christians would have been helped by the skills of psychiatry, even as they would have been had they had anesthetics and surgery hygiene.

So, in a sense, our modern therapy means nothing because we as a society have an underlying issue beneath our soul; and since psychology is based on a Greek word "psyche", which means soul in English. Without the belief of God, and the secularization of nations, people will be depressed in a spiritual sense.

 

[Who Me]

How did people (specifically Christians) dealt with mental issues before the modern therapy?

Society did not know what to do with the seriously deranged.
Look up 'Bedlam ' and you learn about how the common method of treating the mentally ill.

As has bee said by Christ_empowered Quakers and others form places where the mental.y ill could be cared for in a kind and caring way.
Read about Willia Corey's wife Dorothy here:-https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/dorothy-carey-and-her-struggle-with-mental-illness

Without the drugs we have to calm the violent incidents they could only try to reason, pray for and be with her.

 

[Vinny37]

So, in a sense, our modern therapy means nothing because we as a society have an underlying issue beneath our soul; and since psychology is based on a Greek word "psyche", which means soul in English. Without the belief of God, and the secularization of nations, people will be depressed in a spiritual sense.

In a sense, yes, as a cure which brings its own illnesses, or at least one which, claiming to be an idol, has helped move us deeper into idolatry. But within a godly theistic setting, it like good hygiene can be a gain. C S Lewis noted how Freud smuggled in his own ungodliness and antigodness.