is it important to understand the history of abnormal psychology?

The history of abnormal psychology is important because we need to know how far we have come throughout time with the study of abnormal psychology. It is important to know some of the old methods used were cruel and inhumane and did not prove to be beneficial. Treating a person with a mental illness like a criminal or animal would only make the person act worse. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries people with mental illnesses were roped, tied, chained, shackled with balls and chains. Today we have a more civil approach and we use various methods to combat mental illness. Less hospitalization began in the 1960's( Hansell & Damour, 2008). Today community outpatient programs, medications, psychotherapy, ect....