Alexander Frese and the establishment of psychiatry in the Russian Empire.

Abstract

Previous historiography has already paid particular attention to well-known 'metropolitan' biographies of I. Balinsky, V. Bekhterev and others, as well as their role in the establishment of a scientific approach in the treatment of mental illnesses in the Russian Empire. Little attention has been paid to 'provincial' physicians and the importance of their scientific activity in bridging the gap between the Russian and European institutions of psychiatry. The primary aim of this article is to show how Alexander Frese's 'mobile' and 'imperial' career influenced the emergence of the transnational origins of Russian psychiatry. It describes his travels to foreign psychiatric hospitals, and his subsequent critical assessment of them. I argue that his ideas, which had been formulated during these trips, determined the design of emerging psychiatric institutions (district hospitals) in the Russian Empire.