Medieval Theory and Treatment

Like every-thing else medieval, the treatment of the mentally ill in the Middle Ages must be viewed within the context of the Christian Church. Unlike the religions of the Greeks, which glorified the human body, early Christian church held that earthly life was simply a prelude to the life: life after death. As for the body, it was merely the perishable container of the eternal soul. It is therefore no surprise that as the church gained power, deviant behaviour was often explained; not in terms of life events, or bodily processes, but in terms of supernatural forces--usually the devil.
Again, cures for possession ranged from the gentle to the grim. Some of the "afflicted were taken to shrines, prayed over, and sprinkled with holy water.This (as shown in the famous movie the exorcist) still occurs today). Others were starved and flogged, to harass the devil within. Barbarous as the latter treatments may seem to us now, they were regarded as quite proper by most people, including the humane and educated, and not only in the Middle Ages, but well into the Renaissance.
At the same time, it is clear that in many cases mental illness was approached; not as a supernatural visitation, but as a natural phenomenon, the result of physical or emotional mishap. For example, a recent search of English legal records has shown that even when medieval officials examined people who were allegedly mentally deranged, in order to decide how they should be provided for, the officials often recorded natural, common-sense explanations for the derangement. One man, examined in 1291, was said to have lapsed into insanity after a "blow received on the head."