Why Doctors Believed Pressure Caused Madness

For most of medical history, madness wasn’t considered psychological.Doctors believed it was physical — caused by pressure, congestion, and excess force inside the skull. Hallucinations, seizures, agitation, and mania were interpreted as signs that something inside the head was building up and needed release.This belief shaped centuries of medical practice, from trepanation and bloodletting to institutional psychiatric treatments.