Historical understanding of abnormal behavior comprised on both tragedy and comedy. The progression of beliefs and understandings of abnormal behavior has its own share of ups and downs. The understanding of abnormal behavior had great gaps in between, and unusual, and even bizarre views or beliefs have often sidetracked theorists and researchers.
The perception with which people views abnormal behavior was dominantly influenced by social, economic, and religious views of those times.
In the ancient word, the mental disorders were explained as superstitions, which were followed by the emergence of medical concepts in many places such as Greece and Egypt. Majority of these concepts are modified by Roman physicians.
Following the fall of Rome near the end of the fifth century A.D., the mental disorders views were dominated by superstitious views for over 1,000 years.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the dominated view that prevailed, even among the scholars, was the belief that the mentally disturbed people were possessed by a devil.