Until the end of the 18th century, it was common to chain up the mentally ill. After that, large state institutions were established where the sick were treated with methods that sometimes seemed cruel. In the middle of the 19th century, “moral treatment” prevailed. Around 1900, bed treatment and continuous baths appeared. Medicines were barely available.

Therapy before 1933

Psychiatrist Philipp August Damerow (1798-1866) described the large state institutions as “blossoms of humanity institutions”. Common treatment instruments were the “Horn’sche Sack” (a strong canvas sack) or the rotation machine. “Moral treatment” did not use such mechanical constraints. Here, the institution was supervised by an omnipresent, omniscient and benevolent power represented by the head physician. We have to imagine the Dalldorf asylum in the founding years as such a patriarchal system. The only medicines available were chloral hydrate, bromine potash and monobromine camphor. The most important means of treatment was laborious work therapy.

 

Around the year 1900, consistent bed treatment became established: every sick person who was admitted had to remain in bed for at least eight days. At the same time, treatment with warm continuous baths emerged: patients had to lie in water for hours at temperatures of 32° C to 37° C. This was one of the few ways to calm down agitated patients and, at the same time, to monitor them continuously.

 

Progressive paralysis was a progressive syphilitic brain disease with the high-grade destruction of the personality and with symptoms of irritability and paralysis. This was the most common mental illness in the asylums until 1920. Since individual attempts to cure the disease with fever cures were successful, Julius Wagner von Jauregg (1857-1940) tried to cure it with “artificial malaria”. The patients were injected with blood from the veins of malaria patients. For the patients, this treatment was the only chance, because progressive paralysis led to death within a few years. Wagner von Jauregg received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1927 for his discovery.

 

Malaria therapy was the model for further attempts to find an organic therapy for psychoses. Ultimately, the shock therapies developed in the 1920s and applicable as of 1934 were also based on this model.

Until the end of the 18th century, it was common to chain up the mentally ill. After that, large state institutions were established where the sick were treated with methods that sometimes seemed cruel. In the middle of the 19th century, “moral treatment” prevailed. Around 1900, bed treatment and continuous baths appeared. Medicines were barely available.

Therapy before 1933

Psychiatrist Philipp August Damerow (1798-1866) described the large state institutions as “blossoms of humanity institutions”. Common treatment instruments were the “Horn’sche Sack” (a strong canvas sack) or the rotation machine. “Moral treatment” did not use such mechanical constraints. Here, the institution was supervised by an omnipresent, omniscient and benevolent power represented by the head physician. We have to imagine the Dalldorf asylum in the founding years as such a patriarchal system. The only medicines available were chloral hydrate, bromine potash and monobromine camphor. The most important means of treatment was laborious work therapy.

 

Around the year 1900, consistent bed treatment became established: every sick person who was admitted had to remain in bed for at least eight days. At the same time, treatment with warm continuous baths emerged: patients had to lie in water for hours at temperatures of 32° C to 37° C. This was one of the few ways to calm down agitated patients and, at the same time, to monitor them continuously.

 

Progressive paralysis was a progressive syphilitic brain disease with the high-grade destruction of the personality and with symptoms of irritability and paralysis. This was the most common mental illness in the asylums until 1920. Since individual attempts to cure the disease with fever cures were successful, Julius Wagner von Jauregg (1857-1940) tried to cure it with “artificial malaria”. The patients were injected with blood from the veins of malaria patients. For the patients, this treatment was the only chance, because progressive paralysis led to death within a few years. Wagner von Jauregg received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1927 for his discovery.

 

Malaria therapy was the model for further attempts to find an organic therapy for psychoses. Ultimately, the shock therapies developed in the 1920s and applicable as of 1934 were also based on this model.

 

 

Until the end of the 18th century, it was common to chain up the mentally ill. After that, large state institutions were established where the sick were treated with methods that sometimes seemed cruel. In the middle of the 19th century, “moral treatment” prevailed. Around 1900, bed treatment and continuous baths appeared. Medicines were barely available.

Therapy before 1933

Psychiatrist Philipp August Damerow (1798-1866) described the large state institutions as “blossoms of humanity institutions”. Common treatment instruments were the “Horn’sche Sack” (a strong canvas sack) or the rotation machine. “Moral treatment” did not use such mechanical constraints. Here, the institution was supervised by an omnipresent, omniscient and benevolent power represented by the head physician. We have to imagine the Dalldorf asylum in the founding years as such a patriarchal system. The only medicines available were chloral hydrate, bromine potash and monobromine camphor. The most important means of treatment was laborious work therapy.

 

Around the year 1900, consistent bed treatment became established: every sick person who was admitted had to remain in bed for at least eight days. At the same time, treatment with warm continuous baths emerged: patients had to lie in water for hours at temperatures of 32° C to 37° C. This was one of the few ways to calm down agitated patients and, at the same time, to monitor them continuously.

 

Progressive paralysis was a progressive syphilitic brain disease with the high-grade destruction of the personality and with symptoms of irritability and paralysis. This was the most common mental illness in the asylums until 1920. Since individual attempts to cure the disease with fever cures were successful, Julius Wagner von Jauregg (1857-1940) tried to cure it with “artificial malaria”. The patients were injected with blood from the veins of malaria patients. For the patients, this treatment was the only chance, because progressive paralysis led to death within a few years. Wagner von Jauregg received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1927 for his discovery.

 

Malaria therapy was the model for further attempts to find an organic therapy for psychoses. Ultimately, the shock therapies developed in the 1920s and applicable as of 1934 were also based on this model.