PLATO'S CONCEPTION OF MENTAL ILLNESS

     Plato can be attributed to having remarkable foresight in his
conceptions of mental illness. He agreed with his contemporary Hippocrates
that psychopathologies were biological in orgin. Furthermore, he went on to
propose: the importance of dreams in giving insight into the ailment; humane
treatment for the individual afflicted with the disorder; and the psyche, a
concept that has tremendous parallels with Freud.
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 Dreams

     Plato believed that in dreams, the forbidden wishes of the primitive
aspect of the psyche are released.

     There exists in every one of us, even in some reputed most respectable
     a terrible, fierce and lawless brood of desires, which it seems are
     revealed in our sleep.

This notion of the "insightful" aspects of sleep were used in antiquity by
priests and physicians to give information into the ailment of the
individual. This interpretation of dreams is often credited to Freud.

 Treatment of the Mentally Ill

     The treatment of the mentally ill in antiquity was often not very
compassionate. The general population still believed that psychopathology
was caused by possession. This resulted in poor