Inserted alone to criticize 'mental hospital'. Old letters now reveal that things did not go according to the book at Jutland Asylum.

Soon a year from now, you can move into one of 200 renovated apartments in the yellow brick buildings with red tile in Risskov's green surroundings near Aarhus Bay.

But as you approach the attractive facades of the old building in Bindesbøll Byen, the ridges in the form of names and dates in the yellow brick reveal another story about the beautiful building.

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About the Anatomy of Crime

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In the series 'The Anatomy of Crime', Sara Røjkjær Knudsen, along with historians and other experts, investigates the circumstances behind some of Denmark's most notorious murders and the conditions for the country's lowest class throughout history.

You can listen to all six seasons of the series on DR Lyd ( https://www.dr.dk/lyd/p1/forbrydelsens-anatomi-4675134318000 ).

When the place was completed in 1852, it was not called Bindesbøll Byen, but the Mental Hospital for the Insane in North Jutland – also known in the vernacular as 'Jutland Asylum'.

- There are some voices quite clearly in the bricks, says historian Signe Düring, who estimates that the ridges date back to 1852, when Jutland Asylum opened, and closed as a psychiatric ward in 2016 under Aarhus University Hospital.

Jutland Asylum was one of the first psychiatric hospitals built on the idea that people with mental illness could be healed by surrounding themselves with beautiful surroundings and care.

But reality was far from the ideal for many of the admitted, as descriptions of the former patient Ludvig Svenningsen show. His accounts, along with other patients' letters, have been collected by three researchers from Aarhus University in their upcoming book 'Patient Voices from the Asylum'.

In the podcast series 'The Anatomy of Crime: The Scream from the Asylum' ( https://www.dr.dk/lyd/p1/skriget-fra-asylet-6633849316000 ), the researchers, along with host Sara Røjkjær Knudsen, delve into old journals, letters, protocols, newspaper clippings, and a pamphlet about Ludvig Svenningsen, who in 1907 was one of the first patients in Denmark to put words to what was really happening behind psychiatry's walls at the start of the 20th century.

And after the researchers' review of the National Archives' documents, it is clear that Svenningsen was not alone in his experiences at the Jutland institution.

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A stay took a turn

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If we go back in time to 1907, Ludvig Svenningsen's first encounter with Jutland Asylum was not what he had imagined with beautiful surroundings and care.

But when he again felt overwhelmed, as he himself describes in his accounts, and let himself be admitted for a second time, there was a significant change in his stay at the psychiatric institution.

After a minor disagreement with a nurse who wanted Svenningsen to lie in bed for several days without moving, he was shortly after his arrival sent to ward D - the ward for the most challenging psychiatric patients.

- According to Svenningsen, it was not about treating him as a sick person who would be best served on a ward like D. But the nurses knew that it was a terrible place to be, and they used it as a punishment, explains historian Signe Düring, who is also a co-author of the new book.

Svenningsen describes in his accounts that he lost his way, because he did not get enough food. And it did not take long before Svenningsen heard about another patient who was allegedly beaten to death by one of the staff.

- The problem with the nurses is that they are men and women from the countryside without education, and they were under the supervision of supervisors. And they took this everyday understanding, that if someone did not behave properly, then they were given a beating on the butt. They did not understand that there were sick people, explains Klaus Nielsen, professor of psychology at Aarhus University, who is also a co-author of the book.

When Svenningsen confronted the supervisor with the suspicious death, he was sent to isolation in a cell. It took four months for him to be released again.

- So what should have been a week of peace became several months of confinement in a cell, says historian Signe Düring.

After his release from the cell and several unsuccessful escape attempts, Svenningsen himself witnessed the nurses' violent treatment of patients who did not comply.

In his descriptions, Svenningsen tells of nurses who hit so hard on a patient's chest that it made a sound in the room. He did not understand how a person could survive after such hard blows.

The patient screamed like an animal fighting for its life, it sounds in the accounts. Whether this is true, we only have Svenningsen's words for it.

But there is a reason to delve into Svenningsen's accounts. In the early 20th century, it was rare to hear the patients' version of the admissions, explains professor Klaus Nielsen.

- Previously, psychiatric history was only written by doctors, doctors, and researchers, who had a doctor's perspective on things. Here one thinks, where is the patient's voice? But they are not there, he says.

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A criminal had returned to prison

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For many years, Ludvig Svenningsen was alone with his criticism, which manifested itself in critical letters to the newspapers, a complaint to the newly established Health Authority, as well as a pamphlet about his experiences on the otherwise respected institution. Until now.

Old letters from the National Archives show today that several patients in the early 20th century tried to send complaints, but the letters were never sent on. The supervisor at the asylum censored the patients by not releasing their letters, as a protocol in the National Archives shows.

The three researchers have transcribed 220 letters from Jutland Asylum, and while some patients praise the stay, others report on violence, neglect, and abuse.

One of them is the criminal Peder Pedersen, who had decided to exchange his prison sentence with an admission to the beautiful asylum in Risskov.

But he regretted it quickly, explains historian Line Keller, who has delved into the National Archives' letters in connection with the publication of the new book.

- He writes a letter to the prison inspector, that he would like to be transferred back to prison and says that it is terrible to be there and describes the place as an "ape palace", because it smells and stinks, says Line Keller about the nauseating stench, which allegedly filled the rooms.

In the letters, Peder Pedersen also describes episodes of violence from the staff, while the supervisors looked on. Exactly as Svenningsen did a few years later.

- Around 1900, there are many who describe the same problems with the staff, and the asylum makes it worse for them, says Line Keller and tells about a letter from a priest's daughter, who pleads with her family to come and pick her up.

It is not only the patients' letters that the researchers have delved into. In the supervisors' reports, there was also a violent overcrowding on Jutland Asylum in the early 20th century, where 80 percent of the admitted came from the lowest class.

- We have also gone through 17 years' descriptions of the staff, and we can see that about ten percent of the male staff have been dismissed because they have been violent. This creates a picture of a very rough culture on Jutland Asylum, says professor Klaus Nielsen.

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The doctor questioned Svenningsen's credibility

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After the newspapers in 1907 took up Svenningsen's reader letters, a heated debate broke out between Svenningsen and Jutland Asylum's then chief physician Frederik Hallager. Later, politician Peter Sabroe (S) joined the debate on Svenningsen's side.

- It is a harsh debate. The doctors get it rough for being unprofessional. They had promised the public that the institutions would run, and now it shows that the way they get the institutions to run is not through healing, but through violence, and that the patients had nothing to say, explains professor in psychology Klaus Nielsen.

But chief physician Frederik Hallager's response says a lot about the time, thinks she. According to Hallager, one cannot trust anything that Svenningsen says - because he is mentally ill. Many doctors back him up on this.

- One must remember that there was no mental health law at that time that protected patients' rights. So the doctors' authority was without limits, says historian Signe Düring.

First in the fall will come the book 'Patient Voices from the Asylum', where the researchers from Aarhus University now want to give voice to the patients who were never heard during their stay at Jutland Asylum in the early 20th century.

About Ludvig Svenningsen, it is unclear whether his criticism of Jutland Asylum was successful, but you can learn much more about it in the podcast series 'The Anatomy of Crime: The Scream from the Asylum'. Here, host Sara Røjkjær Knudsen investigates Svenningsen's story about violence, coercion, and a murder that was hushed up on Jutland Asylum. Can one trust a man who himself is mentally ill?

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.