In Switzerland, photography found its way into psychiatry during the first decade of the 20th century; psychiatrists often took to photography themselves. The pictures were used in textbooks, specialist articles and lectures (as slides). In 1930, 12 clinics addressed the general public with brochures richly illustrated with photographs. At the HYSPA, the ‘National Exhibition for Hygiene and Sport’, psychiatry occupied a hall under the label ‘psychohygiene’. Twenty-six psychiatric institutions presented themselves with photographs of architecture, treatment, leisure activities and – labelled with diagnoses – patient portraits. Against this backdrop, I examine two undated photographs from the Waldau Clinic. One shows a so-called ‘ward for restless women’, the other a patient at the door to his isolation cell. What psychiatric concepts can be gleaned from these photographs? Which concepts of primitivism were adopted in psychiatry? What do we learn about the scope of action available to female patients, and what social sanctions do they face behind these ‘tamed’, indeed didactic-looking photographs? And finally: how far can an interpretation go?

Date: 3.7.2026 at 5.30 p.m.
Costs: €5
Language: German


Credits: Credits: Hand mit Ringen (Hand with Rings): a print of one of the first X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923) of the left hand of his wife Anna Bertha Ludwig. It was presented to Professor Ludwig Zehnder of the Physik Institut, University of Freiburg, on 1. Januar 1896.