Sidis Psychotherapeutic Institute

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Sidis Psychotherapeutic Institute
Opened 1910
Closed 1923
Current Status Preserved
Building Style Single Building
Location Portsmouth, N.H.
Alternate Names




History[edit]

In 1910, Sidis opened a private asylum, the Sidis Psychotherapeutic Institute, on the Portsmouth, N.H., estate of a wealthy New Englander. Hoping for referrals from psychologically minded colleagues, he announced the opening of his hospital in the Psychological Bulletin and advertised it in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, which he had founded. The ad noted that he would treat patients by "applying his special psychopathological and clinical methods of examination, observation and treatment."

Sidis touted the luxury of the asylum's accommodations and setting, even more than the availability of psychotherapy. "Beautiful grounds, private parks, rare trees, greenhouses, sun parlors, palatial rooms, luxuriously furnished private baths, private farm products," wrote Sidis in his brochure describing the institute. Moreover, he offered his patients the somatic treatments of hydrotherapy and electrical stimulation, as did his less psychologically minded colleagues. The emphasis on luxury combined with the availability of the popular somatic treatments, even in an institution created by an "advanced" thinker like Sidis, suggests that wealthy patients expected a traditional, medical approach to treatment.

As the Sidis Institute illustrates, life in the small, private asylums contrasted sharply with conditions in the late 19th-century public institutions. Patients at public hospitals were usually involuntarily committed, and they typically displayed violent or suicidal behavior before their hospitalization. The public hospitals were overcrowded and dirty, with bars on the windows. The staff was poorly paid and frequently treated patients harshly. Given these terrible conditions, well-to-do patients used their wealth to take shelter in a physician's home and escape the fate of the poor. Not surprisingly, the cost of a private hospitalization was steep. Sidis, for example, charged $50 to $100 and "upwards" a week ($50 would be equivalent to roughly $1,000 today). "Bills are payable in advance," he informed his prospective patients.

For their money, patients received personal, attentive care. Fanny Farmer (1857–1915), the noted cookbook author, stressed the importance of pampering patients to improve their health. Speaking to the staff at one institution, Farmer recommended that patients be given individual custard servings, rather than ladling the custard from a large, common bowl because patients want to feel that they are "being particularly looked out for."