The same could be said of all of medicine, albeit over a longer timespan. Semmelweis was vilified for suggesting that doctors should wash their hands. Chemie Grünenthal covered up the devastating effects of thalidomide. American manufacturers spent much of the 1980s selling HIV-contaminated blood products to the rest of the world. Less than 20 years ago, rofecoxib (Vioxx) killed about 100,000 people. A lot of surgeries that are routinely performed today are completely unsupported by clinical evidence.

It's largely a good thing that recent history looks hopelessly primitive and barbaric to us, because it means that we're making progress. Psychiatry still has a long way to come, but we need to be careful to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Access to psychiatric care has a hugely positive impact on the overall disease burden; mediocre treatment is better than no treatment at all.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-67...

No need to go back in history. Visit a psychiatric hospital, see those poor souls on first generation antipsychotics still in use. They walk around like zombies, slowly, with a parkinsonian gait. Staring vacantly or grimacing, some have their mouths constantly open and drooling (look up tardive dyskinesia). But hey, as long as they are docile, right?