They didn’t have psych drugs that far back. Thorazine was the only major one. Instead they used electric shock therapy, insulin shock therapy, prefrontal lobotomy and other efforts.
“Instead they used electric shock therapy, insulin shock therapy, prefrontal lobotomy and other efforts.”
I suspect on far fewer people, and then go back another 100 years and unless they had some tree bark or something as a pysch drug, people simply had to suck it up.
Thorazine wasn’t used before the fifties. It’s a terrible drug with lots of creepy side effects.