Hello, I am looking for someone to write an article on The Study of Abnormal Behavior. It needs to be at least 2500 words. In ancient times, the maladaptive behaviors had been associated with the possession of the evil spirits. Those who displayed such mental abnormality were perceived to have been invaded by some supernatural powers that were meant to destroy him. In those years, there were no special treatments for such persons. Psychopathology had not existed. The people had to devise their own means of diagnosing and treating a mentally retarded person. The ancient animists, who lived in the Stone Age periods, employed a treatment known as Trepanation in treating the possessed individual. Trepanation involved the boring of a small hole in the skull of the patient to release the bad spirit that had possessed him (Foucault, 2006, pp 34).

Years later, the religious leaders in the earlier eras had to help abolish the trepanation and adopted Exorcism. Exorcism was a religious way of expelling the evil spirits from a person. It was done mainly through prayers and rituals. This method of mental disorder treatment had widely been practiced by the ancient Roman Catholic Church. Any individual seen to be portraying abnormality in the mind was said to have been invaded by the devil and only the supernatural powers of God were a panacea.

Asylums date back to the middle ages and were used to contain the mentally retarded people. Such structures were built far away from the community and the abnormal individuals could be taken there in isolation. The first asylum was built in 1547 by King Henry of England. These asylums were not in good condition. The abnormal people used to live in a very miserable state while there and, were not attended to. These people were seen as very heavy burdens to the sane society. They have treated like animals. beasts! For that matter, the asylums were sometimes used as tourist attractions. People from far away land would come to watch these beasts at a price.