Question

early societies did not pity the victims of mental illness. abnormal behaviors, from simple headaches to convulsions, were believed to be caused by evil spirits that lived in the victim’s body. according to this system of belief—called demonology—mental illness could only be cured by driving out the demons living in the victim’s body. if the patient died in the process, that was just an unfortunate side effect of treatment. and treatment was essential.

that the victims of mental illness suffered more from the treatment than the malady is reflected in the evidence suggesting that stone age cave dwellers treated mental illness by a surgical method called trephining. during this procedure, part of the skull was chipped away to make an opening. once the skull was opened, the evil spirits could escape. it was believed that when the evil spirit left, the person would return to his or her normal state. surprisingly, several trephined skulls that healed over have been found. this indicates that some patients survived what had to be an extremely crude surgery.

(adapted from sue et al., understanding abnormal behavior, $5^{th}$ ed., p.16, © cengage learning.)

1. choose the letter of the best choice for the main idea of this paragraph.

a. people in the stone age treated mental illness with a surgery called trephining.

b. early societies were advanced in their treatment of mental illness.

c. some patients of early trephining survived the procedure.

d. at an earlier time, demons were believed to be the cause of mental illness and treatment required drastic measures.

1. what organizational pattern or patterns help develop the main idea?

a. definition; time order; process; cause and effect

Explanation:

Question 39

• Option A: Only focuses on the Stone Age trephining method, which is a detail, not the main idea.
• Option B: The text shows early treatments were crude (like trephining and demonology - based), not advanced.
• Option C: The survival of some trephined patients is a detail, not the main idea.
• Option D: The passage explains that early societies believed mental illness was caused by demons (demonology) and treatments like trephining or demon - driving - out were drastic (even life - threatening), which covers the overall content.

• Definition: “demonology” is defined as the belief that evil spirits cause mental illness.
• Time order: The text moves from early societies' general belief (demonology) to Stone Age (a specific earlier time) trephining.
• Process: The trephining procedure is described (part of skull chipped, opening made, spirits escape).
• Cause and effect: Evil spirits (cause) lead to mental illness, and trephining (effect - attempt to cure by letting spirits escape) is explained. So option A's patterns are present.

Answer:

D. At an earlier time, demons were believed to be the cause of mental illness and treatment required drastic measures.

Question 40 (assuming we analyze option A as a candidate)