Furunäset och mentalsjukvården : en studie i en institutions kontroll över patienters livsvillkor

Sammanfattning: The Swedish mental hospitals existed for about one hundred years, the period around 1880-1980. The research is intended to be from a local setting perspective to study the local approach used to meet requirements from Furunäsets mental hospital principals 1960 - 1972, the effect this had on the care and treatment of mentally ill patients and how Swedish society's changing approach to mental health influenced the process. The results of the research showed that Furunäset searched for ways to meet the principals' requirements which often went against the patients’ personal best. Furunäsets mental hospital strove to fulfill its institutional goals in them selves rather than giving patients the care and treatment they needed. The Swedish society's attitude to mental illness changed during the 1960s and 70s as a result of a massive social criticism which came from the radical left. The psychiatric treatment was changed by the humanistic psychology breakthrough in the late 1950s and early 60s. This meant that the focus shifted from treating patients as objects to be seen as people with human qualities. These changes created a conflict between the society's belifs and the mental hospital's, regarding the function of Furunäsets Mental Hospital. The conflict led to the Swedish government taking the first step towards reorganizing mental health services by building hospitals in the early 1970s that combined somatic and psychiatric care.