A New science
William Hogarth, Plate VIII of The Rake's Progress. Photo courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
During the eighteenth century insanity was believed to be an incurable result of demonic spirits or an imbalance of the humors. The hopeless condition of the mentally ill meant that they were often victims of neglect, abuse, and curiosity. By the end of the eighteenth century European physicians began to reject the cruel treatment of the insane and sought create a humane refuge where mental illness could be treated and potentially cured. In doing so these physicians redefined insanity and developed a method of treatment called moral therapy. Moral therapy emphasized the curative aspects of a structured environment aided by scientific advancements in medicine and phrenology. Within this constructed world moral physicians, doctors who practiced moral therapy, defined insanity as "a chronic disease of the brain, producing either derangement of the intellectual faculties, or prolonged change of the feelings, affections, and habits of an individual." This belief made the importance of moral therapy central to the treatment of the mentally ill throughout the western world in the nineteenth century as physicians built elaborate asylums and developed advancing theories concerning the nature of insanity.