There is a long history of different theories surrounding psychotherapy studies, some early recognition of there being psychological problems with people came first in the ancient Greek times. By the time of the fall of the Roman Empire the studies into psychological work had already began but their treatments were not very effective as some of these treatments included bathing for depression and what was known as blood letting for psychosis which is where they would attempt to treat a person with psychosis by draining a large amount of blood from the persons body to try and prevent their train of thought carry on along the way it has been during their psychotic period.

After this period there were further developments in the area more so in the 1700’s when psychotherapists started to release patients from shackles and chains and started to treat them more humanly. It was also during this time that they started to develop new treatments such as hypnotherapy rather than the un-human blood letting or torture methods previously used. Another favourite therapy to use was the exorcism theory which was a process used for people suffering from psychosis because they believed they were possessed by demons so thought this process would clear the demon from their body and there fore restore their thought and mental state back to normal.

It was in the 19th Century that they started to work more on the causes and possible solutions for what was known as hysteria but now medically known as Conversion Disorder. They started by treating the disorder with hypnotherapy that was believed to bring the subconscious thought to the front of the mind making it possible for them to talk through their feelings and hopefully eventually solve the problems they have. It was also during the 19th Century that the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud became known for his findings on treating the hysteria, conversion disorder. His work implied that the patient’s symptoms were due to deep rooted memories that had a dramatic effect on them. For example there was one woman that was being treated for conversion disorder that refused to drink water for a period of time but when in a trance state she spoke about a time she saw a woman drink from a glass of water that a dog had just drank from, which disgusted her, after she had spoke about the incident she could drink a glass of water with no problems.