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 139 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.