Insanity: the ride.

does anyone know what other tactics were used to cure mental patients?

The basis of the one tactic I cannot remember the name involves the patient being put in water and then pulled out. this act is repeated and was believed to help.

one similar...

is the spinning chair, where doctors would strap their patient to a bed or chair and spin it 100 rotations in one minute.
thanks! I need to know about the water one, to clarify. : D

I think that the patient was immersed in ICE COLD WATER to kind of create a type of systemic shock to try and bring the patient back to sanity. that is really all I have heard about the water dunk treatment.

other methods were of course electrical shock therapy, restrained in cold wet sheets, violent mental patients 'back in the day' underwent ICE PICK LOBOTOMIES.
it had been said as well that a hysterical woman could be brought out of her hysteria by inducing an orgasm .

I guess there are lots of cures (tortures) that were tried over the past centuries to try and bring people back to sanity, many of these patients died from the things that were attempted. the psychiatric profession has been the home of unspeakable cruelties - all in the name of furthering the science and attempting to CURE patients.