Early Christian Views of Mental Health and Their  Influence on Contemporary Western Thought

Mental illness has been recognized as a problem since classical Greek and Roman times.  During the classical period, three worldviews offered a foundation for different visions of mental health.  The sacred worldview of Homeric times saw mental disturbance as coming from powerful outside forces of a divine or spiritual nature.  The medical worldview of writers like Galen saw mental illness as a function of bodily imbalance.  Finally, the philosophical worldview of Platonic and Stoic authors was broadly moral in its orientation and explanations.  With the advent of Christianity, a number of writers were able to effect a kind of synthesis of these worldviews, a holistic vision of mental health that discussed the somatic, psychological, behavioral and spiritual aspects of psychopathology and its cure.  However, many Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment thinkers challenged this synthesis, making it difficult to address mental health issues in a holistic fashion. These problems could be overcome with a significant shift in our attitude toward mental health problems and their remediation.