["The main cause of his insanity, ... self-pollution". Attributions to illness and the treatment of insanity in the Siegburg Asylum (1825-1878). The case of Georg v. G].

The 25 year old Georg v. G. is admitted to the respected Prussian Siegburg Asylum in 1835. After six years he is discharged from the Siegburg having been diagnosed "incurably insane". In search of possible causes for the illness, the participants involved in the discussion, his father, doctors and the clergyman, come to the conclusion that it is his continuous "self-pollution" that is to be blamed. Their opinion runs in accordance with the discourse within the medical profession that "self-pollution" among young men is a prominent cause of insanity. The young man's patient record makes it possible to reconstruct the forms of "therapy" which are undertaken to cure his feeble state and to keep Georg from his dangerous habit. His record elucidates the interplay between medical theory and medical treatment. The methods of treatment undertaken in the asylum intended to bring Georg back to reason which includes a disciplined behaviour. His case record also opens up new possibilities for research in the history of psychiatry, as, in contrast to previous results, this patient neither attributed his state to his "immoral" behaviour, nor did he take any notice of the attempts his surroundings underwent to prevent him from continuing his actions.