This book provides an overview of how people have conceptualized and understood mental illness through the ages. The book begins by looking at mental illness in humanity's evolutionary past then moves through the major historical epochs: the mythological, the Classical, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and Modern, and the Post-modern. At each point, it focuses on major elements that emerged regarding how people judged sanity and insanity and places major emphasis on the growing fields of psychiatry and psychology as they emerged and developed.

Introduction -- Prehistory -- The Mythological Era -- The Classical Era -- The Middle Ages -- The Renaissance -- The Enlightenment -- The Modern Age -- The Postmodern Age -- The Twenty-First Century -- Now and Into the Future.