I wonder why people from past centuries have not developed way more mental illnesses

[noname223]

I had this thought when I watched the news and saw the horrible war crimes in Ukraine. They interviewed suriviors some of them described PTSD symptoms.
In the past centuries there were even way more wars and tortures. Still it is horrible what nowadays happens I don't question that. But I thought about the following: Some centuries ago public executions were very popular. There were many folk festivals and also children watched the brutal executions of allegded criminals. Why did not all these people develop psychosis or PTSD? I mean they watched extreme brutal torture in real life. Many of them as vulnerable children. I think if someone from us would experience similar things many would be seriously traumatised.

I found one article which was a little bit helpful for answering this question. The resilience towards traumata always depends on the way how one grew up and the circumstances of that time period. Moreover it is probably impossible to compare PTSD in the Middle Ages to PTSD from nowadays.
Still I am wondering. I mean the brutality in this time period was unbelievable. And so many people have watched it. For them watching someone getting tortured was entertainment. Moreover I think experiencing this in real life is completely different than watching gore on the computer nowadays.

 

[Red Scare]

It depends on what you mean, people in the past were likely to interpret someone with mental issues as having been possessed by a demon.

We only noticed people experiencing shell shock, or ptsd, after ww1, but this doesn't mean people didn't suffer from ptsd during other wars in medieval times.

Then again, when there is no modern medicine and you live in a hostile wilderness where anything can kill you and you only live to be 30, you are probably just maladjusted to it and are so used to the traumas that it is just considered normal. I know up until the 50s people would drink themselves into a stupor and beat their wives. Until modern suffrage movements and feminism, women were basically chained to their ovens. When that is just how life is, scary and traumatic, people miraculously adjust. I assume most of history was like that.

 

[noname223]

It depends on what you mean, people in the past were likely to interpret someone with mental issues as having been possessed by a demon.

We only noticed people experiencing shell shock, or ptsd, after ww1, but this doesn't mean people didn't suffer from ptsd during other wars in medieval times.

Then again, when there is no modern medicine and you live in a hostile wilderness where anything can kill you and you only live to be 30, you are probably just maladjusted to it and are so used to the traumas that it is just considered normal. I know up until the 50s people would drink themselves into a stupor and beat their wives. Until modern suffrage movements and feminism, women were basically chained to their ovens. When that is just how life is, scary and traumatic, people miraculously adjust. I assume most of history was like that.

I thought about some points you mentioned too. And I agree to them. There are still communities on this planet where mentally ill people are seen as shamans for example. It is always a question how it is perceived.

 

[DynamicDepression]

you only live to be 30

That's actually just a myth. The reason average life expectancy appears so low was that many children died early and women died in childbirth, but if you grew up healthy, you could live well past 60.

 

[Smart No More]

These days you only have to scrape your knee for a mental health diagnosis or psych med prescription. Also many people take on mental illness such as ADHD as a badge of honour that somehow makes them more interesting. More often than not they have no ADHD. People that actually have these conditions usually speak about it with less gusto and poorly hidden pride. So these two issues combine add up to much more accounts of mental health concerns or diagnosis' than there actually probably are. I suspect many mental health issues from people in the past would have gone undiagnosed or misdiagnosed too so there are descrepancies at each end of the history scale. People with any disability during certain times in history were treated really terribly as well. Many would attempt to hide for fear of being outcast, put in a colony/institution, exploited or straight up killed.

Aside from all this, our society breeds mental health issues now. Particularly social media and scewed views on what's aspirational. Everyone thinks they can be 'famous' and one off special. Which by definition is impossible. People are over worked and under paid. Medicine, whilst amazing in some areas is quite a farce in others and actually serves to worsen peoples well being and therefore mental health. Further pushing them down a rabbit hole they're trying to scrape their way out of. So there are multiple contributing factors to the perception of mental health stats and actual numbers/stats.

 

[Symbiote]

Cases weren't documented, people felt ashamed of their family members being "possessed by the devil" that they had them locked away in a corner far away from society or took them to a forest and killed them.

 

[Hercules]

I don't think their was less mental illness in the past. It's just that the the science of the day wasn't advanced enough for them to have knowledge about psychology and mental illness that we have now, so it went undiagnosed. If someone was mentally ill, their symptoms were attributed to them being possessed by the devil rather than to an illness, because people didn't know any better.

As for people watching public executions executions, I'm sure that many were traumatized and did suffer PTSD. Although if some of them were exposed to this from a very young age, they may have become desensitized to this and seen it as normal.

 

[Suicidebydeath]

I'm sure they did and they just subscribed it to possession, witchcraft, lunacy, laziness, etc instead.

 

[Bong-Hit-Transplant]

I think people were just desensitized to that level of violence. There are people who can get PTSD from seeing a cow get slaughtered, and there are parts of the world where that's a common sight every day.

 

[Bootleg Astolfo]

One of them convinced like 1/3 of the population that he's the son of god and that bread is his body or someshit. I think he got crucified and had a japanese suicide squad try to free him, but they lived up to their name way too well and Brian kinda just stayed on the cross until his death, as some very optimistic dude sung Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.

 

[Brianiskillingme]

My dad who would be 97 now was a WW2 veteran. He had PTSD, depression and flash backs. Mental illness existed but it was a very hush hush thing, kept in the closet.

 

[Sister of the Moon]

What makes you think they didn't get trauma from the lives they led? Of course they did. They just didn't talk about it like we do today. And who do you think passed down their trauma through the generations? I've done my family history going back to the 1500s on some branches, and there are some tragic stories. I'm pretty sure they didn't take it all in their stride.

 

[onlyanimalsaregood]

I agree with everyone. There always has been but it wasn't talked about openly as it's today, even though there is still stigma towards mental health and most people devalue the disease.