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, 5th 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.

Explanation:

To determine the main idea, we analyze each option:

• Option A: Focuses only on Stone Age trephining, but the passage also covers early beliefs about demons causing mental illness and other treatments, so it's too narrow.
• Option B: The passage describes treatments as crude (e.g., trephining, demon - driving) and not advanced, so this is incorrect.
• Option C: The survival of some trephined patients is a detail, not the main idea of the whole passage.
• Option D: The passage starts by explaining that early societies believed mental illness was caused by demons (demonology) and that treatment required drastic measures (driving out demons, trephining), which encompasses the main content of the passage.

Answer:

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