Institutionalization of the insane in the Russian Baltic provinces: a case study of the Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases in Tartu, 1881-95.

Abstract

This article studies the University of Tartu psychiatric hospital and its patient population in the Russian Baltic Province of Livonia in 1881-95, using the hospital's admission registry book as the primary source. Although it was a university clinic following the German academic tradition, both upper- and lower-class patients were admitted (25 and 75 per cent, respectively, of 2,184 hospitalizations), with a median stay of 70 days. Admission and length of stay often depended on a family's or community's financial capabilities. Considerably more men and unmarried patients were admitted, and 130 hospitalized women were diagnosed with female-specific illnesses. This study argues that gender and social class should be jointly analysed, as admission and discharge outcomes are influenced by both factors simultaneously.