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Reference: SC: Psychology

Foundational Concepts

In Vedic times, understanding of the mind emerged from texts spanning roughly 1500-500 BCE, particularly the Atharva Veda and later Ayurvedic medical texts like the Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita. The Vedic conception distinguished the manas (mind) as separate from but intimately connected to the physical body, governed by three fundamental qualities or gunas: sattva (purity, balance), rajas (passion, activity), and tamas (darkness, inertia).

Ayurveda recognized two mental doshas—rajas and tamas—as the contaminants or distorting forces of the mind, while sattva represented the mind’s pure, ideal state. These interacted with the three physical doshas (vata, pitta, kapha)—biological humors governing physiological and psychological processes. Mental illness thus arose from imbalances in this integrated mind-body system.

Causes: A Dual Framework

Vedic understanding operated on two parallel tracks that were never fully separated:

Supernatural causation remained prominent throughout the Vedic period. Mental illness could result from:

• Demonic possession by various classes of malevolent spirits: bhutas (hostile spirits), pretas (ghosts), pisacas (flesh-eating demons), raksasas (sense-stealing demons), and apsaras (seductive spirits causing amorous madness)
• Divine punishment from gods like Rudra, Varuna, or Soma for moral transgressions, insults to elders, or breaking taboos
• Witchcraft and curses (sapatha), particularly the “evil eye”
• Karma from past lives (purvakrta karma)—actions in previous incarnations manifesting as mental affliction

Natural causation developed alongside these supernatural explanations:

• Dosha imbalances: excess or deficiency of vata, pitta, or kapha affecting mental functioning
• Prajnaparadha (“intellectual blasphemy” or “offense against wisdom”)—the conscious commission of harmful acts through defective judgment, considered by some scholars the primary natural cause
• Mental shock (mano abhighata) from unbearable losses—death of loved ones, loss of property or status
• Extreme emotions: fear (bhaya), grief (shoka), anger (krodha)
• Physical factors: contaminated food, heredity, infection

Classification: The Six Types of Unmada (उन्माद)

Unmada (insanity, mental derangement) represented the comprehensive category for serious mental illness, defined as the perversion of intellect (buddhi), mind (manas), consciousness (sanjna), knowledge, memory (smriti), desire, behavior, and conduct. Ayurveda classified six distinct types:

1. Vatonmada (vata-caused): restlessness, rapid/incoherent speech, violent behavior, laughing/crying inappropriately, loss of appetite
2. Pittonmada (pitta-caused): anger, aggression, threatening others, attacking with fists or stones, desire for coolness, seeing flames and lights that aren’t present, yellow skin coloration
3. Kaphonmada (kapha-caused): loss of appetite, vomiting, minimal desires and speech, excessive sleep, copious saliva and nasal secretions, swelling of face, symptoms worse at night and after eating
4. Sannipatonmada: combined vitiation of all three doshas, most severe and difficult to treat
5. Citta Ghataja Unmada: mental shock from unbearable losses, characterized by pallor, fainting, weeping, praising lost objects/persons, inability to sleep, performing unusual acts
6. Visaja Unmada: poisoning-induced, with blue face, red eyes, loss of strength and sensory function, unstable mind

The Atharva Veda further distinguished between severe disruptions like unmada and milder impairments of mental function such as krodha (anger), moh (attachment), shok (depression), and dushswapna (bad dreams).

Treatment: The Threefold Approach

Ayurveda developed a remarkably comprehensive therapeutic system encompassing spiritual, rational, and psychological interventions:

Daivavyapashraya (divine/spiritual therapy) addressed supernatural causes through prayers, mantras, rituals, and offerings to specific deities. The Atharva Veda contains numerous exorcism mantras designed to expel possessing entities.

Yukti vyapashraya (rational therapy based on clinical reasoning) employed systematic treatments:

• Panchakarma purification procedures (induced vomiting, purgation, enemas)
• Herbal medicines: notably Sarpagandha (Rauwolfia serpentina), used for millennia to treat psychotic disorders and later providing reserpine to Western psychiatry
• Dietary regimens to restore dosha balance
• Physical therapies

Satwavajaya (psychotherapy—literally “conquering the mind”) aimed to bring intellect (dhi), fortitude (dhrti), and memory (smrti) into proper condition through:

• Mind control and restraint
• Replacement of harmful emotions with beneficial ones
• Spiritual knowledge and philosophy
• Concentration and remembrance practices
• Environmental and behavioral modifications

This integrated approach recognized that treatment must address the whole person—body, mind, and spirit—with methods calibrated to the specific type and cause of illness.

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