The Policy for psychiatric hospitals in Greece in the 19th century

Abstract

After the establishment of the independent Greek state, psychiatry had not been adequately developed and was not a branch of medical science. Thus, there was a crucial absence of care for the mentally ill as there were no corresponding psychiatric hospitals. The time period examined is characterized by the gradual development of psychiatry and the marginalization of traditional practices, at a relatively slow pace. However, the focus on it aspires to provide useful information for the development of the bases of psychiatric hospitals policies. This paper aims to investigate the development of psychiatric hospitals policy in the Greek state in the historical and social context of the 19th century, in order to highlight the foundations for the advancement of this social policy sector, which were developed in a more organized and thorough way in the 20th century. For this purpose, a bibliographic review was made, which was based on the search for reviews published in international scientific journals, in English and Greek, during the period 2021, regarding the development of psychiatric hospitals and the provided psychiatric care in Greece, the period of the newly formed Greek state. The methodology is based on the literature review of data collected through Google Scholar, Pubmed, through publications, articles, and doctoral dissertations.