The history of the treatment of the mentally ill is reviewed under the headings: introduction, primitive period, classical period, transition period, first half of modern period, modern psychiatric treatment, American psychiatric hospital development, and psychiatric treatment in general hospitals. The need for doctors, and more especially, nurses and attendents with adequate psychiatric training is emphasized. The general hospital must be expanded to provide early care for potential mental patients. The individual personality make-up of the patient must be considered if full social recovery is to be effected.