Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center ( he, בית החולים כפר שאול), established in 1951, is an Israeli public

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

located between

Givat Shaul Givat Shaul ( he, גבעת שאול, lit. (''Saul's Hill''); ar, غفعات شاؤول) is a neighborhood in West Jerusalem. The neighborhood is located at the western entrance to the city, east of the neighborhood of Har Nof and north of Kirya ...

and

Har Nof Har Nof ( he, הר נוף, lit. ''scenic mountain'') is a neighborhood on a hillside on the western boundary of Jerusalem with a population of 20,000 residents, primarily Orthodox Jews. History In Talmudic times, Har Nof was an agricultural settl ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. It is affiliated with the

Hadassah Medical Center Hadassah Medical Center ( he, הָמֶרְכָּז הָרְפוּאִי הֲדַסָּה) is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem – one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus –, ...

and the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. The hospital is Jerusalem's designated psychiatric hospital for tourists who display mental health disturbances, and is widely known for its research on

Jerusalem Syndrome Jerusalem syndrome is a group of mental phenomena involving the presence of religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions, or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by a visit to the city of Jerusalem. It is not endemic to one single ...

. The hospital is located on the grounds of the former Palestinian village of

Deir Yassin Deir Yassin ( ar, دير ياسين, Dayr Yāsīn) was a Palestinian Arab village of around 600 inhabitants about west of Jerusalem. Deir Yassin declared its neutrality during the 1948 Palestine war between Arabs and Jews. The village was razed ...

, and makes use of buildings that remained intact after the

massacre of Deir Yassin The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when around 130 fighters from the Zionist paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi killed at least 107 Palestinian Arabs, including women and children, in Deir Yassin, a village of roughly 600 peopl ...

that occurred during the

1948 Palestine War The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence ( he, מלחמת העצמאות, ''Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut'') and ...

.Ettinger, Yair
"Deir Yassin massacre, 55 years on"
''Haaretz'', April 10, 2003. *Gelber, Yoav
"Propaganda as History: What Happened at Deir Yassin?"
/ref>

History

The Givat Shaul mental health center opened in 1951, utilizing the houses and school building of Deir Yassin, which had been left untouched. It was originally a

therapeutic community Therapeutic community is a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction. The approach was usually residential, with the clients and therapists living together, but increasingly residential ...

of 300 patients who spent most of the day working outdoors. It was called the Kfar Shaul Government Work Village for Mental Patients. In its early years, the majority of the patients were

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivors. The hospital now suffers from severe overcrowding and has an average occupancy rate of 110 percent.

Udi Aloni Udi Aloni ( he, אודי אלוני; born December 10, 1959) is an Israeli American filmmaker, writer, visual artist and political activist whose works focus on the interrelationships between art, theory, and action. Biography Udi Aloni is the ...

, an Israeli director who made a film about the hospital, ''Forgiveness'' (2006), described it as dilapidated.

Snoezelen rooms

The hospital is equipped with

Snoezelen Snoezelen or controlled multisensory environment (MSE) is a therapy for people with autism and other developmental disabilities, dementia or brain injury. It consists of placing the person in a soothing and stimulating environment, called the " ...

rooms, a Dutch therapy technique which uses controlled stimulation of the five senses to benefit the mentally and physically disabled.

Jerusalem Syndrome

The hospital is known in particular for its association with

, a condition in which the sufferer is gripped by religious delusions. The hospital sees some 50 patients a year who are diagnosed with the condition.Beyer, Lisa
Crazy? Hey, you never know"
''Time'' magazine, April 17, 1995. Israel psychologist Gregory Katz has said many of the patients are

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

s from rural parts of the United States and Scandinavia.Mandelbaum, Judy
"The 'Jerusalem Syndrome': An Endangered Species?"
, ''Emunah'', August 17, 2010. The syndrome was first diagnosed in 1993 by Yair Bar-El, a former director of the hospital.

Archaeology

In 2000, archaeologists unearthed the remains of a winepress dated to the Byzantine or Roman era on the grounds of the hospital.Israel Antiquities Authority, Kfar Shaul winepress
/ref>

Published research

*Bar-El, I. et al
"Psychiatric hospitalization of tourists in Jerusalem"
''Compr Psychiatry''. 1991 May-Jun;32(3):238-44. *Durst, R. et al
"Amnesiac state in a Holocaust survivor patient: Psychogenic versus neurological basis"
''Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci''. 1999;36(1):47-54. *Durst, R. et al
"Kleptomania: diagnosis and treatment options"
''CNS Drugs''. 2001;15(3):185-95. *Katz, G. et al
"Time zone change and major psychiatric morbidity: The results of a 6-year study in Jerusalem"
''Compr Psychiatry''. 2002 Jan-Feb;43(1):37-40. *Raskin, Sergey
"The concept of judgment in the medico-legal context: A view from Israel"
''Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care'' (2009), 5: 41–46. *Zislin, Josef et al
"Male Genital Self-Mutilation in the Context of Religious Belief: The Jerusalem Syndrome"
''Transcultural Psychiatry'', June 2002.

References

{{Authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1951 Psychiatric hospitals in Israel Hospitals in Jerusalem