Asylum

Although the how, where and when to treat mental illness are now better understood in India, the 'why' continues to be obscure

- By Sanjeev Jain

IN a damning criticism of the colonial government, a prominent psychiatrist pointed out in 1937 that “it would be difficult for the most jingoistic to affirm that, in the matter of provision for mental disorder in India, in India, the British ‘bearing of the white man’s burden’ has been quite adequate.” But have we, as an independent nation, done a better job?

The mentally ill have always been with us; and every known historical account recounts those who behaved in a mad manner. For millennia, the ‘why’ of ‘why do people go mad’ was debated, and in the absence of any other obvious observable evidence, it was assumed that it was the work of the Devil, or the consequence of moral or religious transgression. All societies and religions assumed that only these could cause a fall from grace, which altered a person in thought and deed to the extent that they could be considered beyond the pale, devoid of humanness, and thus lose their place in society.

It was only a few hundred years ago—prompted by the dramatic change in our thinking about the natural world—that sickness and disease began to be understood as a natural phenomenon. The laws of physics, chemistry and biology, and the instruments that were invented (thermometer, microscope, stethoscope, etc.) could help record the temperature of the body, measure gases in respired air, and even detect bacteria in pus. The mythical fear of illness vanished, and it simply became a problem to be solved. The appearance of doctors, who practised this new natural science in hospitals, where the sick could be treated, was thus a recent modern invention.