Abstract
Based on medical records from the child psychiatric clinic at the Copenhagen University Hospital, this chapter examines various facets of Danish mid-twentieth-century child psychiatric practices, including admittance procedures, diagnostic tools and treatment options. The child psychiatric consultation is understood as a place of conflict where the child’s parents and the psychiatric staff did not always interpret the child’s behaviour and difficulties in the same way. Where possible, the voices of the child patients are drawn to the forefront in the form of personal letters (and other writings) to provide a glimpse of the psychiatric encounter from the child’s point of view.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Jennie Sejr Junghans, “Mellem arv og miljø – Dansk børnepsykiatri 1891-1940” (Unpublished MA-thesis, The University of Copenhagen, 2012).
- 2.
In 1946, the Danish parliament decided that a second national child psychiatric facility should be built in relation to Risskov Psychiatric Hospital in Århus. Mentally ill children were treated as outpatients from the same year, but the new child psychiatric ward was not opened before 1958.
- 3.
Neither the renowned late British historian of medicine, Roy Porter, mentioned children at all in his comprehensive body of work; nor so the American historian Edward Shorter in his acclaimed “The History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac” from 1997.
- 4.
Steven J. Taylor, Child insanity in England 1845–1907. (London: Palgrave Macmillan 2017). Samuel Boussion & Jean-Christophe Coffin (eds.), “Le psychiatrie, l’enfant et L’État – Enjeux d’une spécialité en construction, 1900–1950” in Revue d’histoire l’enfance “irrégulière, 18:2016.
- 5.
Per Hove Thomsen (ed.), Børne- og ungdomspsykiatrien i Danmark gennem 50 år. Et jubilæumsskrift, Børne- og Ungdomspsykiatrisk Selskab i Dannmark, 2003. (Anniversary publication.)
- 6.
August Wimmer, Degenererede Børn, København: Gyldendalske Boghandel Nordisk Forlag 1909.
- 7.
Jennie Sejr Junghans, “Mellem arv og miljø – Dansk børnepsykiatri 1891–1940” (Unpublished MA-thesis, The University of Copenhagen, 2012).
- 8.
Box 4. P. 01.04.1935. Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives).
- 9.
The importance of child psychiatry as a tool to prevent another world war and to create stable, peaceful citizens was emphasized at the second International Conference on Child Psychiatry held in London in 1947. See: Flugel, J.C. (ed.), Proceedings of the international conference on Child Psychiatry 11th–14th August. (London: H. K. Lewis & Co. Ltd. 1948). (My Ph.D. dissertation deals with this conference in more detail, but due to COVID-19-related circumstances, the completion was delayed, and therefore it was not possible to make more exact referencing at the time of finishing present chapter.)
- 10.
See for example: Kai Tolstrup. Sjæleligt syge børn. (København: Munksgaard, 1972).
- 11.
Box 4. V. 01.04.1952. Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 12.
Box 4. A. 01.04.1951. Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 13.
Box 16. I. 02.04.1928. Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 14.
Box 4. P. 01.04.1943. Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 15.
Box 36. B. 03.04.1952. (Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 16.
Jennie Sejr Junghans, “Mellem arv og miljø – Dansk børnepsykiatri 1891–1940” (Unpublished MA-thesis, The University of Copenhagen, 2012.)
- 17.
Kai Tolstrup, ”Børnepsykiatrien i Danmark i de første år – med nogle personlige erindringer” In Børne- og ungdomspsykiatrien i Danmark gennem 50 år. Et jubilæumsskrift, ed. Per Hove Thomsen, 4–7. Børne- og Ungdomspsykiatrisk Selskab i Danmark 2003. (Anniversary publication.)
- 18.
See for example: Bonnie Evans. The metamorphosis of autism – A history of child development in Britain. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017). Susan C. Hawthorne, Accidental Intolerance: How we stigmatize ADHD and How We Can Stop. (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2014). Matthew Smith, Hyperactive – the Controversial History of ADHD. (London: Reaktion Books, 2012).
- 19.
Sven Hagen Madsen (ed.), Børnepsykiatrien i Risskov gennem 50 år (1958–2008). (Børne- og Ungdomspsykiatrisk Center, Risskov, 2008).
- 20.
The Binet-Simon-test was invented by the French psychologist Alfred Binet and psychiatrist Théodore Simon in 1905. It was translated into Danish in 1930. Hansen, Carsten Rosenberg. 2010. ‘Alfred Binet’ in Den Store Danske, Gyldendal. Accessed the 6th of May 2018: http://denstoredanske.dk/index.php?sideId=47223.
- 21.
Jette Møllerhøj. På gyngende grund – Psykiatriens praksisser og institutionalisering i Danmark 1850–1920. (Unpublished Ph.D.thesis, Institut for Folkesundhedsvidenskab, Københavns Universitet 2006). Ole Sylvester Jørgensen, “Børnepsykiatri” in Den Store Danske, Gyldendal 2009. Accessed the 6th of May 2018: http://denstoredanske.dk/index.php?sideId=53156.
- 22.
Because Anne wrote to the staff member’s private address, her name has been changed to ensure her privacy in this particular case.
- 23.
Box 76. B. 05.10.1942. (Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 24.
Box 76. B. 05.10.1942. (Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 25.
Box 76. J. 05.10.1935. (Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 26.
Box 36. B. 03.04.1952. (Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
- 27.
Box 25. H. 02.10.1943. (Rigshospitalet, Børnepsykiatrisk Afdeling OB 1935–1976. (Case-material available at the Danish National Archives.)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Junghans, J.S. (2021). Distant Voices: Treatment of Mentally Ill Children at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, c. 1935–1976. In: Ellis, R., Kendal, S., Taylor, S.J. (eds) Voices in the History of Madness. Mental Health in Historical Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69559-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69559-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-69558-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-69559-0
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)