'black bile', malaria therapy and insulin comas – a brief history of mental illness
- Written by Sidney Bloch, Emeritus Professor in Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne
Possibly the earliest account of a disturbed mind is recorded in a 3,500-year-old Hindu text that describes a man who is “gluttonous, filthy, walks naked, has lost his memory and moves about in an uneasy manner”.
In the Bible’s Old Testament, in the first Book of Samuel, we read that King David simulated madness to gain safety:
And...
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