Psychiatric treatment and the condition of the mentally disturbed at Berlin's Charité in the early decades of the nineteenth century

Abstract

The life of the mentally disturbed in psychiatric institutions during the first decades of the nineteenth century has been many times described by psychiatrists connected with those institutions. The accuracy of these accounts is, however, difficult to ascertain because independent testimonies are rare. Yet, such material on the conditions at the Psychiatric Section of Charité Hospital in Berlin, which was at that time Prussia's leading psychiatric institution, is extant. This material pertains to the criminal trial proceedings against Ernst Horn, the Second Director at Charité, who in 1811 was charged with malfeasance and negligent homicide in the treatment of a mentally disturbed patient. The materials describe the daily routine of the patients as well as the therapeutic procedures - both occupational therapy and the application of noxious agents. Consideration of the conditions and therapeutic treatments of the mentally disturbed at this time is important because these were the formative years of institutionalized psychiatry which have to some extent, influenced practices during the rest of the century.