Mental illness has been recognized for thousands of years, and various innovative treatments were developed for it. Most were violent: doctors in ancient civilizations bored holes in the patient’s head to let demons out, and lobotomies (surgery to sever nerve tracts in the brain’s frontal lobe) were performed in the U.S. until 1951. One doctor, Walter Freeman, used to perform several in one session with an instrument like an ice pick.

Roman remedies for madness included flogging, fetters, and starvation. Other tried and true cures through the years were bleeding, purging, and forced vomiting. Herbal remedies abounded as well. St. John’s Wort was used by the Greeks to calm anxiety, while medieval practitioners believed that tying a bag of buttercups under someone’s neck would cure the person’s insanity.

Buttercups

Instruments Used to Bore Holes in Skull

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