Mental Health

I have found clues that my ancestors might have suffered from mental illnesses. Take this newspaper clipping, for example. Mental illness almost certainly affected your ancestors. But they might be hard to detect. People did not know how to identify mental illnesses until recently. So, records are not always accurate. Mental illness almost certainly affected your ancestors. But they might be hard to detect. Why is the history of mental illness such an important topic? Why should we pay special attention to mental illness in genealogy research?