A psychiatric evaluation report from 1855 /Un raport de evaluare psihiatrică de la 1855

In Wallachia the first mental asylum was founded by the authorities in 1839/1840, following the re-organization and modernization of the sanitary system during the Russian occupation and administration of the Principalities between 1828-1834. However, the asylum was destined only to people coming from society’s lower classes and during its first years of existence its purpose was the mere confinement of the mentally impaired without providing them any psychiatric assistance. Whether they were admitted into the asylum or attended at home or in monasteries, those suspected of suffering from a mental disease were evaluated by a medical commission, who assessed their mental capacities. This article presents a set of archival documents from 1855 about such a psychiatric evaluation and offers information about the care that the wealthy or the poor insane could receive at that epoch in Wallachia.