Gheel connection

History of Psychiatric Foster Family Care in

Occidental and Oriental Contexts

Akira Hashimoto
Aichi Prefectural University
Japan
Birth and rebirth of Gheel

The legend of St. Dimpna

in the 6th century

Dimpna was beheaded by

her own father in Gheel
near Antwerp.
Birth and rebirth of Gheel
St.-Dimpna Church
and its sick room

demon sick room

Iconography of St. Dimpna

and demon
Birth and rebirth of Gheel

Modernization

Psychiatrist Étienne
Esquirol (1772-1840)
visited Gheel in 1821.
Infirmerie (mental hospital)
in Gheel, established in 1862
Birth and rebirth of Gheel

Around 1900
discussion of Gheel
again came to the fore.

Two patients (by the window)

and foster family members in
Gheel ca. 1900.
Birth and rebirth of Gheel

Register book

The visitors’ register book

(Registre des permis de visiter OPZ (Openbaar
l’établissement) Psychiatrisch
kept in OPZ, Geel. Ziekenhuis Geel, former
Infirmerie in Gheel)
Birth and rebirth of Gheel
Africa &
Asia (4%) Oceania (1%)
6 (persons)
Central & South 18
America (6%) 31

North America (11%)

54

Europe (78%)
403 (persons)

In “Europe (78%)” , 19 visitors

from Russia are included.
Gheel visitors from
foreign countries
(1892-1935)
Birth and rebirth of Gheel
Gheel visitors from
foreign countries
(1892-1935)
number of visitors
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

1892-1895

1896-1900

1901-1905

1906-1910

1911-1915

1916-1920

1921-1925

1926-1930

1931-1935

year
Birth and rebirth of Gheel
Gheel visitors from
Germany and USA
number of visitors
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

1892-1895

1896-1900

1901-1905

1906-1910

1911-1915

1916-1920

1921-1925

1926-1930

1931-1935

year
Germany USA
Context in Germany
Context in Germany

The German Reich

(ca.1914)

Mental hospital in
Altscherbitz and the
Saxony second director
Province Albrecht Paetz
(1851-1922)
Context in Germany
Provincial psychiatric
institutions
in Saxony Province
before 1900
Nietleben
(since 1844)

Lack of beds
Altscherbitz
(since 1876)

Uchtspringe
(since 1894)
Context in Germany
Landesasyl

Konrad Alt
(1861-1922)
Director of Mental The “Landesasyl” near
Hospital Uchtspringe was a small central
in Uchtspringe institution for foster family care.
Context in Germany

5 visitors from
Saxony Province from the register book

on March 4th
and 5th, 1899.

Graf von
Wintzingerode

Dr. Paetz
Thewes
Dr. Alt
Dr. Fries
Context in Japan

8 Japanese visitors
Name (affiliation) Date of visit

KAWAMURA, Yoshimasu (Osaka District Court) Jul. 22, 1899

SHIMIZU, Toru (Imperial Household Agency) Jul. 22, 1899

Jul.or Aug.
KURE, Shuzo (University of Tokyo)
1901

KUBO, Ikujiro (Kyoto Medical College) Oct.13, 1931

? KURIMURA, Kazuo (Doctor, Nippon Yusen) May 10,1935

? ? (Kurimura’s companion) May 10,1935
? ? (Kurimura’s companion) May 10,1935

MURAMATSU, Tsuneo (University of Tokyo) May 30, 1935

Context in Japan

Gheel and Iwakura

“With proper
modification, the
tradition at Iwakura
would become foster
family care.”
Compendium of Psychiatry (1895) Shuzo Kure
(1865-1932)
Professor of
psychiatry at the
University of Tokyo
Context in Japan

What is Iwakura?
• Legend: Daiunji
Temple
• Tradition: yadoya
(small home-style
Left: yadoya right: Daiunji Temple
Japanese inn) for the
mentally ill
• The modern
authority tried to
suppress the The holy well Kwannon
tradition. (Daiunji Temple) (Daiunji Temple)
Context in Japan

Kure’s textbook

Shuzo Kure
(1865-1932)

Compendium of Psychiatry (1895)

Context in Japan

Kure’s study in Europe

and Gheel visit

Shuzo Kure

from the register book

Context in Japan

Wilhelm Stieda
(1875-1920)
Russian (Latvian) psychiatrist

“In this village [Iwakura] – a

Japanese Gheel – they have taken care
of mental patients for many centuries.”

„Ueber die Psychiatrie in Japan.“

Centralblatt für Nervenheilkunde
und Psychiatrie (1906), 29, 514-522.
Context in Japan

Kure tried to introduce new

practices from European
psychiatry at the Prefectural
Mental Hospital at
Matsuzawa in Tokyo.

Tokyo Prefectural
Mental Hospital at
Matsuzawa in Tokyo
before WWII
Context in Japan Topography of hoyojos
at Iwakura in 1935

Kimori hoyojo Imai hoyojo (new building)

Yamamoto/Fukui hoyojo
Horiuchi hoyojo

Nishikawa hoyojo

Kajita hoyojo

Kato hoyojo
Imai hoyojo

(map: Nakamura O, 2005)

Watanabe hoyojo Muramatsu hoyojo
 Context in Japan

Iwakura: the pros and cons

“Iwakura Mental Hospital

is the central clinic of the
Iwakura family care.”

Dr. Tsuchiya (left), director of

Iwakura Mental Hospital, in the
consultation room
“Hoyojos at Iwakura
were nothing more Dr. Yasumasa
than boarding houses Nagayama
for rich persons.”
 Context in colonial India
and Berkeley-Hill in Ranchi
Context in India

Owen A. R. Berkeley-Hill
(1879-1944)

• 1907 Indian Medical

Service
• 1918-1934 European
Mental Hospital in
Ranchi
• Devoted to
psychoanalysis and
mental hygiene
Context in India

“For years, I have held

that familial treatment
of Anglo-Indian and
Indian insanes is not
only a possible but an
inevitable development.”
Berkeley-Hill visited
Gheel in 1925.
Context in India

Berkeley-Hill chose an
easygoing way of expressing
his view on the family care.
Context in India

Berkeley-Hill argued that

the objection to the
introduction into India of the
Gheel system was that it
was incompatible with the
manner of life of the people.
Context in India

Gheel Visitors from India

Name (affiliation) Date of visit
Berkeley-Hill, Owen
1925
(Ranchi, Indian Medical Service )
Dhunjibhoy, J.C.
Jul. 1929
(Ranchi, Indian Medical Service)
Batliwala, D.M.
Oct. 1930
(Baroda)
Bahadur, Sandar
Jun.(?) 1933
(New Delhi, Indian Red Cross)
The letter with
reference to
Gheel visit of
Batliwala
 Conclusion

Transfer of knowledge and system:

A huge difference lies between
“from Europe to Europe” and “from
Europe to Asia”.
Conclusion

For Europeans it was

relatively easy to find the
reason why they wanted to
introduce the Gheel system
in their own counties.
Conclusion
India
• It is not clear how the family care
could be realized for Indian (Hindu)
people, whose character traits
Berkeley-Hill sharply contrasted
with British ones.
• It does not seem that Indian people
took any part in the discussion or
proposed their own way of family
care.
Conclusion
Japan

• “Japanese Orientalists” tried to

interpret the tradition of mental
patients’ stay in the village of
Iwakura near Kyoto as a form of
foster family care in a Western
medical context.
• “The Oriental was always like some
aspect of the West” (E.W. Said)
Conclusion

Patients have been supported not

only by medical concepts and
treatment, but rather by the social
capital such as the social
relatedness of human beings, which
cannot easily be manipulated in a
quasi-technological way.