Psychiatry is the study of mental illnesses and their treatment. Its starting point and foundation is the scientific understanding of the nature of mental disorders. In addressing this task, the physicians of antiquity had advanced to the point where they associated madness with certain physical disturbances, particularly with fever and changes in bodily fluids. Unfortunately, these views, which had already developed into theoretical frameworks, were almost completely lost with the collapse of the ancient culture. Instead, during the Middle Ages, scholastic-philosophical and religious-superstitious ideas quickly infiltrated the understanding of madness, rapidly displacing the existing approaches of a scientific understanding. Mental disorder was no longer seen as an illness, but rather as a work of the devil, a punishment from heaven.