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Perception of the Mentally-ill down the agesComer (2004: 24) writes that prehistoric societies apparently viewed abnormal behaviour as the work of the evil spirits.There is evidence that Stone Age cultures used trephination, a primitive form of brain surgery, to treat abnormal behaviour.He further says that people of early societies also sought to drive evil sprits by exorcism. He concludes that people in the darkages believed that the mentally-ill were possessed by the devil, therefore, the exorcists physically tortured the mentally-ill todrive the evil spirit out of their bodies.Sharma (2000), adds that many women who were mentally-ill were branded as witches and were ceremonially burned on thevillage post, ironically as an act of kindness to save their souls (even today the naming and practice still exists). She furthersays for time immemorial, patients with mental illness were feared therefore tortured and chained so others could live safely.These practices were solely out of kindness but it shows that they (practices) evoked feelings of fear of the mentalclients/patients. The fear gained its roots in the dark ages when mental illness was seen as the devil’s work which nowstigmatises mental clients, she says.In his book, Abnormal Behaviour, Comer (2004) says, in the middle ages, Europeans returned to demonological explanationsof abnormal behaviour. The clergy was very influential and held that mental disorders were the work of the devil though, asthe middle ages drew to a close, such explanations and treatments began to decline, and people with mental disorders wereincreasingly treated in hospital instead of by the clergy. Care of people with mental disorders continued to improve during theearly part of the Renaissance. Certain religious shrines became dedicated to the humane treatment of such individuals. Bymiddle of the sixteenth century, however, persons with mental disorders were being warehoused in asylums. Physicians ofthe Greek and the Roman Empire offered more enlightenment explanation of mental disorders but the stigma was therethough was under control.During the eighteenth century, the western health care in Lesotho started in 1884 when the Paris Evangelical MissionarySociety (now know as Lesotho Evangelical Church) brought the very first medical practitioner to work in what was thencalled Basutoland (Mohlomi Report: 2000). From these humble beginnings has emerged a health service which comparesfavourably with any in Africa. From this time, Basotho started using both traditional and western medicine for healthproblems, especially mental illness. Traditional healers may be able to plug gaps in primary mental health services in Africa,according to Anglo-Ugandan Research (1999).Hippocrates (sic) believed that abnormal behaviour was due to an imbalance of the four bodily fluids or humours: black bile,yellow bile, blood and phlegm and treatment consisted of correcting the underlying physical pathology through diet andlifestyle (Comer 2004: pg 24). He continues to say that inheritance plays a part in mood disorders yet with few exceptions,researchers have not been able to identify the specific genes that tare the culprits, nor do they yet know the extent to whichgenetic factors contribute to various mental disorders.In addition to Comer’s view, Andreasen (2001) said that scientists have known for years that genes help determine suchphysical characteristics as hair colour, height, and eyesight, so genes can make people more prone to heart disease, cancer ordiabetes and perhaps to possessing artistic or musical skills as much as they may also influence behaviour including abnormalbehaviour. He concludes by saying that many genes combine to help produce our actions and reactions, both functional anddysfunctional that can be prolonged and so stigma be attached to it.Torrey (2001) reasoned that since the discovery of these medications, mental health professional in most of the developednations of the world have followed a policy of de-institutionalisation, releasing hundreds of thousands of patients from publicmental hospitals. He additionally says out patient care has now become the primary mode of treatment for people with severepsychological disturbances as well as for those with more moderate problems, so today when severely impaired people doneed institutionalisation, they are usually given short-term hospitalisation and ideally they are then given outpatientpsychotherapy and medication in community programs and residences without educating the communities of these peopleabout the mental illness and stigma attached to mentally ill people is increasing.In Barnes and Maple (1992), mentally-ill people on the other hand are seen by the public in a different light: the studies theyreviewed earlier have shown that people often attribute psychiatric problems to character, weakness and defects,consequently, responsibility is imputed to the individual for the condition, likewise the feeling is often present that all would175