Abnormal Psychology Illnesses of the mind have been considered the battle between the good and the evil in the early 12th-14 th centuries (Barlow and Durand, 2005, p. 8). When someone had unexplained irrational behavior, the blame fell on evil. Devious methods of treatment for insanity prevailed. Demons and witches took some of the blame. The splitting of the Church in the 14th century was similarly believed to be due to heresy. The unfortunate insanity of people was seen as the downfall of the town. Exorcism and rituals were performed to rid people of insanity (Barlow and Durand, 2005, p. 9). There were some who believed that stress and melancholy were the causes of insanity and so could be easily cured. Treatments included rest, baths, ointments and potions. The patients were kept within the family and community in a happy atmosphere. Many people however found fault with the sufferers who they believed had the illness as a punishment. There followed a period where it was believed that the heavenly bodies influenced the mind, hence the word lunatic (Barlow and Durand, 2005, p. 11). The supernatural tradition for insanity is still prevalent among some religious groups. Hippocrates classified psychological diseases like any other and believed they could be treated as the brain was the seat of wisdom, consciousness, intelligence and emotion (p. 12). Hippocrates thought that there were four humors in the body; blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm. Melancholia or depression was caused by increased black bile. Each of the 4 humors was associated with heat, dryness, moisture and cold. Different psychiatric problems were associated with these states. “Hysteria” was coined by Hippocrates. He identified a group of disorders which are now termed somatoform. The biological tradition waxed and waned till again reestablished in the 19th century. John Grey was the champion of this tradition in America (Barlow and Durand, 2005, p. 13). Institutionalization was followed for a while. When the number of patients increased, the idea of non-institutionalization began. The Modern-day behaviorists Behaviorism is mainly associated with Pavlov and is known as classical conditioning while in the United States it is known as operant conditioning (Atherton, 2005). Classical conditioning tells of how an unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response and then in combination with a conditioned stimulus, the response becomes a conditioned one. Operant conditioning is when a previous experience reinforces a particular response. Learning occurs in the process (Atherton, 2005). The main manifestation of behaviorism is learning. Behavior has been spoken of as agential and physical behavior. Physical behavior refers to the change in relation to the environment. The raising of a leg could be an example. Agential behavior could be assumed to be what the agent does to produce a physical behavior (Byrne, 1994). Many associates all actions with physical behavior. This may not be true of reflexes which are also physical behaviors. The better way to understand agential behavior is by understanding that all matters decided in the head constitute agential behavior. Simple processes of behavioral modification could explain the behavior of an organism as argued by Watson and Skinner. Both of them spoke about psychological behaviorism (Byrne, 1994). They thought that behavior could be ex