madness in ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians wrote about problems of mental health as early as 1550 B.C.E. (Hills, 1901), as witnessed by the Ebers (dated to the reign of Amenhotep I, 1525-1504 B.C.E., and discovered by the German Egyptologist Georg Ebers in 1873 (Bunson, 2002; Nunn, 1996)) and Edwin Smith papyri (Nasser, 1987). The latter gives the first known written description of the meninges, cerebrospinal fluid,  and convolutions of the brain (Missios, 2007; Nunn, 1996), whereas the former describes conditions that appear to be equivalent to hysteria, alcoholism, depression (Nasser, 1987) and schizophrenia (Kyziridis, 2005), although they were seen as varieties of physical illness rather than mental phenomena (Stone, 2006). Treatments for these disorders included the application of bodily fluids while reciting magic spells (Bunson, 2002), the use of hallucinogens as therapeutic medications, and voluntary retreat in temples (similar to the idea of asylum nearly three millennia later). Interestingly there appears to be no mention of madness as a manifestation of spirit possession, as in other cultures, despite Dercum’s assertion to the contrary (Dercum, 1918), although successful treatment was largely attributed to the wearing of amulets or the intercession of the gods (Darton, 1999; Regis, 1894). In fact, disorders of the mind could be attributed to heart problems, as the two were identical in Egyptian thought (Kyziridis, 2005). The French psychiatrist Pinel reinforces these ideas in his "Nosographie philosophique", II (1798), stating that sufferers of melancholy (roughly equivalent to the modern idea of depression) were treated in temples with “suggestion, diversion of mind, and recreations of all kinds, by a careful regimen, by hydropathy, and by pilgrimages to the holy places” (Walsh, 1910). The chief place of “psychiatric” treatment appears to have been the temple of Imhotep in Memphis, which came into being as early as 2850 B.C.E. (Darton, 1999). The Greeks later identified Imhotep with Asclepios, god of medicine (Bierbrier, 2008; Bunson, 2002; Hart, 1986; Nunn, 1996).

The Edwin Smith papyrus

Imhotep, the ancient Egyptian "god" of healing

References:

Bierbrier, M.L. (2008). Historical dictionary of ancient Egypt. Plymouth, England: Scarecrow Press Inc.

Bunson, M. (2002). Encyclopedia of ancient Egypt. New York, NY: Facts on File Inc.

Darton, K. (1999). Notes on the history of mental health care. Mind: London. Retrieved from http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Factsheets/History+of+mental+health/Notes+on+the+History+of+Mental+Health+Care.htm

Dercum, F.X. (1918). A clinical manual of mental diseases. (2^nd edition).  Philadelphia, PA: W.B. Saunders Company.

Hart, G. (1986). A dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Routledge.

Hills, F.L. (1901). Psychiatry – ancient, medieval and modern. The Popular Science Monthly 59, 3, 31-48.

Kyziridis, T.C. (2005). Notes on the history of schizophrenia. German Journal of Psychiatry 8 (4): 42-8.

Missios, S. (2007). Hippocrates, Galen, and the uses of trepanation in the ancient classical world. Neurosurgery Focus 23, 1, 1-9.

Nasser, M. (1987). Psychiatry in ancient Egypt. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 11 (12): 420-422.

Nunn, J.F. (1996). Ancient Egyptian medicine. London, England: British Museum Press.

Regis, E. (1894). A practical manual of mental medicine. (2nd edition). Utica, NT: American Journal of Insanity.

Stone, M.H. (2006). History of schizophrenia and its antecedents. In Lieberman, J.A., Stroup, T.S., & Perkins, D.O. The American Psychiatric Publishing textbook of schizophrenia. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.

Walsh, J.J. (1910). Asylums and Care for the Insane. In The Catholic encyclopedia. New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved frrom http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08038b.htm