Romans and Mental Health

[Cassius Loginus]

I have read books about the Romans but never discovered how the Romans tackled citizens with mental health*.

 

 

* What I mean with mental health? Nowadays people get sick with depression very easily due to stress, grief, tension and other consequences of social disorders. I think in Ancient Rome people suffered from depression as well as they used to have the same life challenges as we have.

 

My real question is that serious mental health problems such as autism, Hutchinson Disease, MS, Psychotic people such as schizophrenia - how the ROmans used to deal with such people - did they have Mental institutions? I doubt.

[M. Porcius Cato]

My real question is that serious mental health problems such as autism, Hutchinson Disease, MS, Psychotic people such as schizophrenia - how the ROmans used to deal with such people - did they have Mental institutions?

 

No mental institutions--unless you count the imperial palace. In general, the systematic categorization and diagnosis of mental illness is an achievement of the late 20th century.

[Vibius Tiberius Costa]

I suppose most Romans didn't have the time to be depressed and even if they were they would have worked through it and they wouldn't really know they had it.

As for dealing with it, i don't know

 

vtc

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

I have read books about the Romans but never discovered how the Romans tackled citizens with mental health*.

 

 

* What I mean with mental health? Nowadays people get sick with depression very easily due to stress, grief, tension and other consequences of social disorders. I think in Ancient Rome people suffered from depression as well as they used to have the same life challenges as we have.

 

My real question is that serious mental health problems such as autism, Hutchinson Disease, MS, Psychotic people such as schizophrenia - how the ROmans used to deal with such people - did they have Mental institutions? I doubt.

 

As there was no real kind of diagnosis for these kind of illnesses in ancient times apart from " She's mad! " or " He's been cursed by the gods! " I expect that the people with these kind of problems would have probably been cared for at home by members of their own family either that or locked away from the outside world so as not to embarrass or bring shame on the family name, or maybe in some cases they would prefer to put them out of their misery, let them die an honourable death instead of just withering and wasting away.????

[Ursus]

Strange afflictions were thought to have supernatural origins, which usually required the afflicted to visit a temple and pray to discover who had cursed them. That is why Apollo was both the god of healing and prophecy. The afflicted would then make an offering to the god in question in hopes of relief.

 

[ursus' note: my off topic comment deleted]

[Kosmo]

I wonder if roman soldiers suffered from combat stress disorders. Chopping an enemy whith a short sword might upset a weaker mind. Or maybe they were better prepared for this kind of activity.

[Lost_Warrior]

I'm sure they did...I really cannot imagine going through battle mentally unscathed, especially since they started so young!! Are there any sources on this?

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, guys!

 

Here comes the Lex Duodecim Tabularum:

Tabula V (concerning estates and guardianships)

Lex VII

 

"Si furiosus escit, adgnatum gentiliumque in eo pecuniaque eius potestas esto. "

"If someone goes mad, his nearest male kinsman shall have authority over his property."

 

This was one of the Curae sui iuris incapaces, provision for people unable to defend their rights; specifically the Cura furiosi.

[caldrail]

I wonder if roman soldiers suffered from combat stress disorders. Chopping an enemy whith a short sword might upset a weaker mind. Or maybe they were better prepared for this kind of activity.

 

Not to the extent that we see today. Certainly there were men who liked violence and those who found it instrinsically awful - or anywhere between, just as we see today. However, the human psyche responds better to situations where we fight en masse with an enemy in front of us.

 

In modern warfare, the risk of death is different, and more present in the background. You might step on a mine. You might be in the area of an artillery strike. An aircraft can drop a laser guided bomb on you without warning. A sniper can take you down from over a mile away. A parked car might suddenly explode. A civilian gift of food might contain a nasty suprise. Your enemy is camouflaged, hidden, and waiting around every street corner. Combine that with the noise and damage that modern weapons cause, you have a combat enviroment far less 'enjoyable' and definitely more stressful.

 

I think in some cases you may have seen men with too many memories of things, but then again, that was a violent time and death was commonplace. The romans watched men fight to the death for fun. They watched animals being slaughtered for the same entertainment. They also watched criminals subjected to horrific executions. Ok, that was happening to someone else, but then this sort of thing was accepted by the ancient world as an everyday event and it wasn't just the romans. Remember how horrified the romans were when they heard the tales of what happened to the men captured by the germans in the Varian Disaster?

[Vibius Tiberius Costa]

I doubt the Romans would have had combat stress, it was their life and customs a lot mroe than today. Even if some did they woudl then be useless to the army, they would either have to get over it or go home as an utter disgrace (if they are allowed to go back not killed for being a big wet crybaby who wants to abandon his terms service)

 

Question: A fair few emperors were 'mental' so was ever a connection made that they were mad because emperors were supposedly demi-gods, summat like that?

 

vtc

[Marcus_Aurelius]

Just think of the average roman soldier as a killing machine, they always did their duty.People use to think of the ancient Romans as common human beings more educated than the barbarians, but it isn't so.Romans were harsh men, they were taught to be fearless from infancy, they had the cult for Mars and Quirinius, they were rightly arrogant with all the other peoples and killing barbarians who threatened Rome was their duty as free born citizens.

Moreover, Romans were also Stoics ,they thought that passions such as fear or pity derived from irrational judgements.Their sense of duty( and also the promise of aquiring land:P) was so high that thrusting a barbarian with a gladius didn't make them feel bad, but rather satisfied.

They didn't have to chop heads or cut their enemies sadistically, just thrust the gladius in the enemy's stomach and then rotate it in order to destroy their internal organs.No more and no less....

[Lost_Warrior]

In modern warfare, the risk of death is different, and more present in the background. You might step on a mine. You might be in the area of an artillery strike. An aircraft can drop a laser guided bomb on you without warning. A sniper can take you down from over a mile away. A parked car might suddenly explode. A civilian gift of food might contain a nasty suprise. Your enemy is camouflaged, hidden, and waiting around every street corner. Combine that with the noise and damage that modern weapons cause, you have a combat enviroment far less 'enjoyable' and definitely more stressful.

 

Good point; I don't know why I didn't think of it.

[Pertinax]

Certainly not my area of expertise, but I was considering the range of medications available versus certain known clinical behaviours .

 

We are aware of the process of "incubation" in relation to the "healing" of a devotee within the confines of a given deities precinct, this healing being for a broad spectrum of afflictions , the health of the eye being a particular consideration in Classical antiquity (in this context and in the promotion of salves and medicinal compounds). The use of incubation does not seem to discriminate against the healing of spiritual afflictions , likewise a hoped for pregnancy might be the goal of such an activity.Obviously this is more of an Attic behaviour, nevertheless given the depth to which Roman medicine is informed (and then transformed ) by Grecian medicine (and physicians) then I tentatively suggest that prayer and medicine would have a place in daily healing.The case of midwifery is much more certain, an accomplished midwife would deploy medicine, prayer, song and physical aid to a birth.

We are aware of the knowledge of painkillers (opium , henbane , hellebore, strammonium) and aware of the psycho active potential of these plants, likewise celtiberian medicine furnishes specific examples of mood enhancing drugs/intoxicants (yarrow/myrtle/honey as gruit, borage as a pre-combat psychotropic).So we have , at least , the possibility of techniques and medicaments that could be of some use to a healer dealing with the mind, though I venture to suggest that mind and body might not be the subject of quite the same strict dichotomy as in the "modern" world.

Combat stress is an interesting concept here, in that the whole ethos of the Army kept men in a semi-sacred relationship with comrades, standard and Rome itself.Men were under the standard for a long time as well, the division between service and civilian life was a long time coming for veterans did esprit de corps keep a combatant sane? Caldrail identifies the bloodier, but more direct and certain clash of arms in the field , killing distance is close at this time (indeed it is the key to the effectivness of the gladius as a killing weapon) , no uncertainty from airborne attack or long distance sniping.

[caldrail]

Well - fighting between human beings isn't unusual. Its actually normal behaviour, although generally it rarely goes further than pushing and shoving. We do that for dominance, sexual rights, or simply because we're angry at someone. On a macro scale there are other factors. Cultural survival, monetary gain, leadership/ambition, etc. In roman times, to pick up a sword and fight was considered something manly, not something mundane perhaps, but definitely an activity that a fit and healthy roman male should not shrink from. The greeks were no different. Nor were most of the barbarians Rome encountered. That was how you did business back then.

 

For that reason, combat isn't going to have such a long-lasting effect. Where Rome differed perhaps is the extent they trained their personnel. As dehumanised soldiers there is a parallel to the modern day, and we know from the historical record just how violent and cruel legionaries could be.

 

Modern training does exactly this. By harsh regime and strict repitition, men are moulded to a desired behaviour against their normal human instinct. We're getting very sophisticated about this mental preparation these days, but not so good at sticking plasters on these men when the fighting is done. Especially since we prefer a less rambuctuous society where ordinary violence is met with juducial sentences.

 

In roman times therefore, men who had served as soldiers might be troublesome and potentially violent, but that was expected even if the romans didn't really understand the consequences of these factors. Today we do, but putting humpty back together again is more difficult, especially with the modern media and its often sensational depiction of world events. Whereas a roman soldier served his general and did what was ordered, now a soldier can return home to find his peers seeing him as a war criminal for doing his duty. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

[Vibius Tiberius Costa]

In modern warfare, the risk of death is different, and more present in the background. You might step on a mine. You might be in the area of an artillery strike. An aircraft can drop a laser guided bomb on you without warning. A sniper can take you down from over a mile away. A parked car might suddenly explode. A civilian gift of food might contain a nasty suprise. Your enemy is camouflaged, hidden, and waiting around every street corner. Combine that with the noise and damage that modern weapons cause, you have a combat enviroment far less 'enjoyable' and definitely more stressful.

 

But shouting, screeching and heart-rendering battle-cries, seige engines firing and archers volleying, the gush of blood, screams of agony, boulders and ballista bolts tearing through people cutting them to ribbons. Limbs, torsos, asorted body parts and blank-eyed heads everywhere. Assassins, quite possibly in the mix. Flanking maneuvres that could wipe out your entire legion. Cavalry (they are pretty scary). I would have thought it was equal to worse in terms of enjoyment. Your right about deaths at the back of the line so to speak, the triarii were probably less likely to be killed than a hastatus. Your parked car exploding probably has a roman analogy of a hidden trap or camouflaged units in the darkness and cover of a grove of trees.

 

vtc