‘Understanding how and why people go mad has been a critical aspect of human society’

When did human civilisation actually begin? Did it begin with humans making artefacts, pots and weapons, or with the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry or with the creation of settlements, which later became city-states?

When did human civilisation actually begin? Did it begin with humans making artefacts, pots and weapons, or with the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry or with the creation of settlements, which later became city-states?

The famous anthropologist Margaret Mead is believed to have said that human civilisation began with a healed femur, which had been discovered at a site containing ancient human remains.

“Usually, in animals, if you break your leg bone, you are left to die,” says Dr. Sanjeev Jain, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS at a recent talk in the city. The fact that the bone had healed indicates that someone had actually helped rehabilitate this person, he says, concluding that this was also, in some ways, the beginning of medicine. “Medical care has been the driving principle of all human civilisation,” states the Bengaluru-based psychiatrist and teacher at the talk held at the Atta Galatta bookstore in Indiranagar.

Dr. Jain, author of the book Mindscape and Landscape: An Illustrated History of NIMHANS, went on to trace the larger history of mental healthcare before zeroing in on the genesis and evolution of Bengaluru’s National Institute of Mental Health and Science, better known as NIMHANS.

“Ever since we have written records of human cultural history to go back to, madness has always been recognised,” he says. According to him, accounts of madness have cropped up in diverse texts, including the Ramayana, the Old Testament and ancient Greek myths. “The Greeks thought that madness was due to intoxications or passion—alcohol, love or opium,” he says, adding that Ayurveda, too, contains information about it. “Understanding how and why people go mad has been a critical aspect of human society,” he says.

The idea of creating spaces to nurture the mentally ill emerged only in 800 C.E. with the advent of Islam, says Dr. Jain. “Many mosques started looking after the mentally ill, and the first mental hospital was set up in Baghdad,” he says. This also meant that the idea of the asylum spread with Islam. “It went to Cairo, Libya and Spain,” he says.

Islamic culture dictated that the mentally ill should be looked after in a place that closely resembled heaven, replete with running water, music, fruit trees, and flowers. So, this became the general design of asylums all over the Arab world, he adds. Over the next 400-500 years, the idea of having designated spaces for the mentally ill spread to Europe when it came in contact with Islamic cultures. “They started building these asylums,” says Dr. Jain.