HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Zürich'' (Psychiatric University Hospital Zürich) is a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. As a research hospital, it is associated with the University of Zürich. It is also called Burghölzli, after the wooded hill in the district of Riesbach in southeastern Zürich where it is located.


History

Before the construction of dedicated state-run institutions, most people with mental illnesses and disabilities were housed privately. A "counting of the insane" () in 1851 found that less than 10 percent of the 1281 individuals identified in the canton of Zurich were in the care of hospitals, most of which lacked dedicated psychiatric wards. In 1817, the city of Zürich had established such a ward in its "Old Hospital" () in the centre of the
old town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...
. Initially, it provided 24 cells for mentally ill individuals. In the 1840s, the entire facility was converted to exclusively house chronically and mentally ill patients. The conditions in the Old Hospital were the subject of frequent criticism, which catalysed proposals for the construction of new asylums. By 1863, plans for a new asylum in the area had been completed. In 1864, the cantonal parliament voted to begin construction of the facility. This expansion of psychiatric care came at a time during which public discourse, both in Switzerland and in other European countries, frequently framed the availability of inpatient care for the mentally ill as an indicator of societal progress.
Wilhelm Griesinger Wilhelm Griesinger (29 July 1817 – 26 October 1868) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Stuttgart. Life and career He studied under Johann Lukas Schönlein at the University of Zurich and physiologist François Magendie in Paris ...
was instrumental in the planning of the new asylum. Although he died before the building was established in 1870, he is considered the founder of the Burghölzli. From 1870 until 1879, the hospital had three directors,
Bernhard von Gudden Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden (7 June 1824 – 13 June 1886) was a German neuroanatomist and psychiatrist born in Kleve. Career In 1848, von Gudden earned his doctorate from the University of Halle and became an intern at the asylum in Siegbu ...
, Gustav Huguenin and
Eduard Hitzig Eduard Hitzig (6 February 1838 – 20 August 1907) was a German neurologist and neuropsychiatrist of Jewish ancestryAndrew P. Wickens, ''A History of the Brain: From Stone Age Surgery to Modern Neuroscience'', Psychology Press (2014), p. 226 b ...
. All three men focused on neuropsychiatry, with brain pathology and physiology being the general focus of their research.
Auguste-Henri Forel Auguste-Henri Forel (1 September 1848 – 27 July 1931) was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. For example, he is considered a ...
was the fourth director of Burghölzli, and spent nearly twenty years at the helm. Forel conducted hypnosis experiments on both patients and staff, as well as teaching the method to his students. A staunch advocate of eugenics, he conducted sterilization procedures at the clinic during his tenure. While the cited indications at the time were of a therapeutic nature, he later wrote that this had been a "pretense", and that the only true purpose of these procedures had been a social one. Forced sterilizations of mentally ill patients would continue under his successors. In 1898 Eugen Bleuler became director of the Burghölzli, where he would remain until 1927. The "Bleuler era" is considered the most illustrious period at the hospital, largely due to the advent of psychoanalysis, usage of Freudian psychiatric theories, and the creative work of Bleuler's assistant,
Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phil ...
. Bleuler was followed as director by Hans-Wolfgang Maier and afterwards by his son Manfred Bleuler. In addition to Jung, many renowned psychiatrists spent part of their career at the Burghölzli, including
Karl Abraham Karl Abraham (; 3 May 1877 – 25 December 1925) was an influential German psychoanalyst, and a collaborator of Sigmund Freud, who called him his 'best pupil'. Life Abraham was born in Bremen, Germany. His parents were Nathan Abraham, a Jewis ...
, Ludwig Binswanger,
Eugène Minkowski Eugène (Eugeniusz) Minkowski (; 17 April 1885 – 17 November 1972) was a French psychiatrist of Jewish Polish origin, known for his incorporation of phenomenology into psychopathology and for exploring the notion of "lived time". A student of E ...
,
Hermann Rorschach Hermann Rorschach (; 8 November 1884 – 2 April 1922) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His education in art helped to spur the development of a set of inkblots that were used experimentally to measure various unconscious parts of the s ...
,
Franz Riklin Franz Beda Riklin (22 April 1878, in St. Gallen – 4 December 1938, in Küsnacht) was a Swiss psychiatrist. Early in his career, Franz Riklin worked at the Burghölzli Hospital in Zurich under Eugen Bleuler (b.1857–d.1939), and studied e ...
,
Constantin von Monakow Constantin von Monakow (4 November 1853 – 19 October 1930) was a Russian-Swiss neuropathologist who was a native of Bobretsovo in the Vologda Governorate. He studied at the University of Zurich while working as an assistant at the Burghölzli In ...
, Eugen Bleuler,
Ernst Rüdin Ernst Rüdin (19 April 1874 – 22 October 1952) was a Swiss-born German psychiatrist, geneticist, eugenicist and Nazi, rising to prominence under Emil Kraepelin and assuming the directorship at the German Institute for Psychiatric Resea ...
, Adolf Meyer,
Abraham Brill Abraham Arden Brill (October 12, 1874 – March 2, 1948) was an Austrian-born psychiatrist who spent almost his entire adult life in the United States. He was the first psychoanalyst to practice in the United States and the first translator of S ...
and
Emil Oberholzer Emil Oberholzer (December 24, 1883 – May 4, 1958) was a Swiss-American psychiatrist. He was a born in Zweibrücken, Germany, and died in New York City. Beginning in 1908, he received psychiatric training under Eugen Bleuler (1857–1939) in Zu ...
.
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
's son,
Eduard Einstein The Einstein family is the family of physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955). Einstein's great-great-great-great-grandfather, Jakob Weil, was his oldest recorded relative, born in the late 17th century, and the family continues to this day. Al ...
was a patient at Burghölzli. Today the Burghölzli is an important center for psychiatric research and the treatment of mental illness. The controversial Ewen Cameron studied at Burghölzli in the late 1920s. On March 6, 1971, a fire broke out at the clinic; 28 elderly male patients died from suffocation. There were bars on the windows, frustrating the attempts of rescuers to save lives."28 Elderly Men Die in Fire at Clinic in Zurich Suburb," ''New York Times'', March 7, 1971, p. 8.


Trivia

The fictitious 2007 Swiss mystery film ''
Marmorera Marmorera (german: Marmels) is a village and former municipality in the Sursés in the district of Albula in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. On 1 January 2016 the former municipalities of Bivio, Cunter, Marmorera, Mulegns, Riom-Pars ...
'' was filmed among others, at the ''Bürghölzli'' sanatory in the
Weinegg Weinegg is a quarter in District 8 of Zürich. Geography and demographics Weinegg was formerly a part of Riesbach municipality, which was incorporated into Zürich in 1893. The quarter has a population of 4,951 distributed on an area of 1.72 km ...
district of Zürich, on the river
Limmat The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. The river commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, in the southern part of the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, after 35 km reaching the river Aare. The confluen ...
near Technopark Zürich, at the Limmatquai promenade, and on the Münsterbrücke river crossing towards
Münsterhof Münsterhof (literally: Fraumünster abbey courtyard) is a town square situated in the Lindenhof quarter in the historical center of Zürich, Switzerland. Münsterhof is the largest town square within the ''Altstadt'' (old town) of Zürich, and i ...
.


References

* ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the French Wikipedia.''


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgholzli Psychiatric hospitals in Switzerland Hospitals established in 1870 Buildings and structures in Zürich District 8 of Zürich