This is a timeline of the modern development of psychiatry. Related information can be found in the Timeline of psychology and Timeline of psychotherapy articles.
Early history of psychiatry 1550 BCE The Ebers papyrus, one of the most important medical papyri of ancient Egypt, briefly mentioned clinical depression.
6th century BCE 600 B.C., many cities had temples to Asklepios known as an Asklepieion that provided cures for psychosomatic illnesses
4th century BCE Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that physiological abnormalities may be the root of mental disorders.Nasse, Hermann (1829). De insania commentatio secundum libros Hippocraticos. Bonn: Thormann; Leipzig: Cnobloch. English translation of Nasse's dissertation in: S. E. Jelliffe, Notes on the History of Psychiatry. Alienist and Neurologist, 1916, Vol. 37, 287-312 , 331-346 ; 1917, Vol. 38, 41-56 , 147-159 .
280 BCE Greek physician and philosopher Herophilus studied the nervous system and distinguished between sensory nerves and motor nerves.
250 BCE Greek anatomist Erasistratus studied the brain and distinguished between the cerebrum and cerebellum.
9th century The first bimaristan was built in Baghdad, followed by several others throughout the Arab world. By the 13th century, they had become large, complex, and divided into several different specialized units. A number of these hospitals contained wards for patients with mental illness.
11th century Persian physician Avicenna recognized "physiological psychology" in the treatment of illnesses involving emotions, and developed a system for associating changes in the pulse rate with inner feelings.
1247 Bethlehem Royal Hospital in Bishopsgate outside the wall of London, one of the most famous old psychiatric hospitals was founded as a priory of the Order of St. Mary of Bethlem to collect alms for Crusaders; after the English government secularized it, it started admitting mental patients by 1377 (1403?), becoming known as Bedlam Hospital; in 1547 it was acquired by the City of London, operating until 1948; it is now part of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.Shorter, Edward (1997). A history of psychiatry : from the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. New York : John Wiley & Sons, 4-5.
Psychiatry in the Enlightenment 1656 King Louis XIV of France founded Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris for prostitutes and the mentally defective.
1672 English physician Thomas Willis published the anatomical treatise De Anima Brutorum, describing psychology in terms of brain function.English translation: , London 1683.
1716
As the first governmental institution dedicated to caring for the mentally ill on German territory, the hospital "Chur-Sachisches Zucht-Waysen und Armen-Haus" was opened in Waldheim in 1716.
1724 After being plagued with guilt over the Salem Witch Trials, influential New England Puritan minister Cotton Mather broke with superstition by advancing physical explanations for mental illnesses over demonic explanations.; Gamwell, Lynn & Tomes, Nancy (1995). Madness in America : Cultural and Medical Perceptions of Mental Illness before 1914. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 15-17; Beall, Jr., Otho T. & Shryock, Richard H. (1953). The Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, Vol. 63, 37-274.
1758 English physician William Battie published Treatise on Madness, calling for treatments to be utilized on rich and poor mental patients alike in asylums.
1793 French physician Philippe Pinel was appointed to Bicêtre Hospital in south Paris, ordering chains removed from mental patients, and founding Moral Treatment. In 1809 he published the first description of dementia praecox (schizophrenia).
1796 The York Retreat in England was founded by Quakers, becoming known for humane treatment and serving as a model.
Psychiatry in the 19th century 1808 German physician Johann Christian Reil coined the term "psychiatry".Marneros, Andreas (2008). Psychiatry's 200th birthday. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 193, 1–3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.108.051367
1812 American physician Benjamin Rush became one of the earliest advocates of humane treatment for the mentally ill with the publication of Medical Inquiries and Observations, upon the Diseases of the Mind,Rush, Benjamin (1812)., Philadelphia: Kimber & Richardson. the first American textbook on psychiatry.Hilty, Donald M., et al. (2019). A Historical Review of Key Events and Components of Faculty and Professional Development in Psychiatry. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 42, 359. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2019.05.001
1821 The element lithium was first isolated from lithium oxide and described by English chemist William Thomas Brande.
1841 What became the Royal College of Psychiatrists, then known as the Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane, was founded in England, receiving a royal charter in 1926.
1844 The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII), the forerunner of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1845 The Lunacy Act 1845 and the County Asylums Act 1845 were passed in England and Wales, leading to the setting up of the Lunacy Commission.
1851
Dr. Samuel Cartwright, a prominent Louisiana physician and one of the leading authorities in his time on the medical care of people referred to as "negroes", identified two mental disorders peculiar to slaves: Drapetomania, or the disease causing slaves to run away; Dysaethesia Aethiopica which proposed a theory for the cause of laziness among slaves. Today, both are considered examples of scientific racism.
1852 French physician Bénédict Augustin Morel published Traite des Maladies Mentales (2 vols.); the 2nd ed. (1860) coined the term "dementia praecox" (demence precoce) for patients with "stupor" (melancholia). In 1857 he published Traité des Dégénérescences, promoting an understanding of mental illness based upon the theory of Degeneration, which became one of the most influential concepts in psychiatry for the rest of the century.
1859 Paul Briquet published Traité clinique et thérapeutique de l’Hystérie.Briquet, Paul (1859)., Paris : J.-B. Baillière et fils.
The first psychiatric clinic in the Russian Empire was organized by Ivan Mikhailovich Balinsky (1827-1902) at the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg.Lichterman, Boleslav (2010). A history of Russian and Soviet neuro(patho)logy, in: S. Finger, F. Boller & K. Tyler (eds.), History of Neurology, Edinburgh: Elsevier, 742; Balinsky, I. M. (1860), Rede bei der vorjährigen Eröffnung der psychiatrischen Klinik zu St. Petersburg. Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie und psychisch-gerichtliche Medicin, 17, 210-217; A. v. R. (1894). Prof. J. P. Mierzejewski, Geschichtlicher Ueberblick über die psychiatrische Klinik der medicinisch-chirurgischen Militär-Akademie (Petersburg). Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie und psychisch-gerichtliche Medicin, 50, 414-419.
1892 Daniel Hack Tuke edited the first dictionary of psychiatry.Corsini, Raymond J. (1999). The Dictionary of Psychology. Philadelphia, PA: Brunner/Mazel, p. 1152.
1893 German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin clinically defined "dementia praecox", later reformulated as schizophrenia.
1895 Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer of Austria published Studies on Hysteria, based on the case of Bertha Pappenheim (known as Anna O.), developing the Talking Cure; Freud and Breuer later split over Freud's obsession with sex.
1899 The Kraepelinian dichotomy between affective psychosis and dementia praecox (schizophrenia) was introduced in the 6th edition of Emil Kraepelin's famous Lehrbuch.
On 4 November Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung).
Early 20th century psychiatry 1900 Russian neurologist Vladimir Bekhterev discovered the role of the hippocampus in memory.Penfield, Wilder (1959). The Interpretive Cortex. Science, Vol. 129, Issue 3365, 1724. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.129.3365.1719
1901 German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer identified the first case of what later became known as Alzheimer's disease.
Sigmund Freud published The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
1902 Swiss-born psychiatrist Adolf Meyer became director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, influencing American psychiatry with his "common sense" approach which included keeping detailed patient records; he coined the term "mental hygiene".
1905 French psychologists Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon created the Binet-Simon Scale to assess intellectual ability, marking the start of standardized psychological testing.
1906 Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov published the first Conditioning studies.
1908 The term "Schizophrenia" was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugen Bleuler.
1909 In September Sigmund Freud visited Clark University, winning over the U.S. psychiatric establishment.
1910 Sigmund Freud founded the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), with Carl Jung as the first president, and Otto Rank as the first secretary.
Boris Sidis opened the Sidis Psychotherapeutic Institute (a private hospital) at Maplewood Farms in Portsmouth, NH for the treatment of nervous patients using the latest scientific methods.
1911 Alfred Adler left Freud's Psychoanalytic Group to form his own school of thought, accusing Freud of overemphasizing sexuality and basing his theory on his own childhood.
The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) was founded.
1913 The British Psychoanalytical Society was founded by Ernest Jones, who became Freud's biographer.
Citing Freud's inability to acknowledge religion and spirituality, Carl Jung split and developed his own theories; his new school of thought became known as Analytical Psychology.
Jacob L. Moreno pioneered Group Psychotherapy methods in Vienna, which emphasized spontaneity and interaction; they later became known as Psychodrama and Sociometry.
1914 Sigmund Freud published On Narcissism: An Introduction.
1917 Sigmund Freud published Introduction to Psychoanalysis, and Mourning and Melancholia.S. Freud, Mourning and Melancholia, in: , London 2006, 310-326.
1920 Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach developed the Rorschach Inkblot Test.
1921 Sigmund Freud published Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.
1923 German pharmacologist Otto Loewi and English neuroscientist Sir Henry Dale discovered Acetylcholine, the first neurotransmitter to be described, winning them the 1936 Nobel Prize.
1924 German neuropsychiatrist Hans Berger discovered human Electroencephalography.
Otto Rank published The Trauma of Birth, coining the term "pre-Oedipal", causing Freud to break with him.
1926 The Société Psychanalytique de Paris was founded with the endorsement of Sigmund Freud; the Nazis closed it in 1940.
1927 Austrian psychiatrist Manfred Sakel developed Insulin Shock Therapy as a treatment for psychosis; it was discontinued in the 1970s.
Austrian physician Julius Wagner-Jauregg won the Nobel Prize for his invention of malarial therapy as a treatment for general paralysis of the insane (neurosyphilis). He first initiated the treatment in 1917.
1928 Indian Association for Mental Hygiene established.
1933 Hungarian psychiatrist Sándor Ferenczi published a paper claiming that patient accounts of childhood sexual abuse are true, providing a psychological explanation, causing Freud to break with him.
1935 The Indian division of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association was formed due to the efforts of Dr. Banarasi Das.
1938 Italian neurologist Ugo Cerletti and Italian psychiatrist Dr. Lucio Bini discovered Electroconvulsive Therapy.
1942 Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger founded Existential Therapy.