The limit of potential | Page 11

The present Madness is very common in the social landscape. From the Renaissance to the Middle Ages, there has been a dramatic conflict between man and madness, and so far, the social stigma oscillates between sanity and insanity. Through time, psychiatry mistreated many mentally ill people and this practice was used for social and political reasons by confining healthy people into mental institutions. Nowadays, insanity is considered to be a major issue in our society. Psychological disorders, especially depression, have risen rapidly over the years, as one out of four people in Europe have experienced at least one major depressive episode during their lifetime, according to surveys contacted by the European Parliament on mental health, in 2006. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies schizophrenia and depression within the top 10 illnesses with the most serious effect in t