Distant Voices: Treatment of Mentally Ill Children at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, c. 1935–1976

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.