History of psychiatry
Head: Prof. Dr. H. Hippius, emeritus professor
The research group on the history of psychiatry works on carefully archiving historical psychiatric documents and other interesting collectors’ items from the history of psychiatry and putting them into the overall context of the history of psychiatry. The majority of the existing documents and collectors’ items relate to people who have played a particularly outstanding role in the history of the Psychiatric Hospital, e.g. Kraepelin, Alzheimer, von Gudden.
The research group has pledged to archive historic documents and collectors’ items from the history of psychiatry and then to organise them in the context of the history of psychiatry.
Particular emphasis is placed on people who played an important role in the history of the Psychiatric Hospital, including Alois Alzheimer, Emil Kraepelin and Johann Bernhard Aloys Gudden.
Some relevant historic documents and materials were re-discovered that were particularly relevant for bridging the gap between historical and modern times.
For example, the Neuropathological Institute at the LMU (Prof. Dr. Mehrain and PD Dr.M. Graeber) used modern microscopic and neurogenetic methods to study neurohistopathological brain preparations from patients of that time, which gave rise to more comprehensive findings.
