Psychiatry in The Age of Reason
- 1656
King Louis XIV of France founded Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris for prostitutes and the mentally defective.
- 1672
English physician Thomas Willis published the anatomical treatise De Anima Brutorum, describing psychology in terms of brain function.
- 1724
After being plagued with guilt over the Salem Witch Trials, influential New England Puritan minister Cotton Mather broke with superstition by advancing physical explanations for mental illnesses over demonic explanations.
- 1758
English physician William Battie published Treatise on Madness, calling for treatments to be utilized on rich and poor mental patients alike in asylums, helping make psychiatry a respectable profession.
- 1793
French physician Phillipe Pinel was appointed to Bicêtre Hospital in south Paris, ordering chains removed from mental patients, and founding Moral Treatment. In 1809 he published the first description of dementia praecox (schizophrenia).
- 1796
The York Retreat in England was founded by Quakers, becoming known for humane treatment and serving as a model.
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Psychiatry
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