Psychiatry in the Commonwealth Caribbean

Treatment of the mentally ill by the Aboriginal Awaraks of Jamaica and the other Caribbean islands was first described by a Spanish monk in 1540: ‘Lunatics’ who were called ‘mind riven’ were treated in the community with salvent herbs, which were blended with food and left to hang on fruit trees for those who wandered, and by the administration of unguents and lavings while singing. This record indicates that the mentally ill were treated by the indigenous Indians without restraints, and with rudimentary attempts at pharmacology and cultural therapies. But this enlightened but primitive mental health system was destroyed with the advent of the Spanish conquerors who, according to Las Casas, “in about eight to forty years have unjustly put to death about twelve million Indians without distinction of quality, sex or age”.