The Beginnings of Pediatric Psychiatry in the Czech Lands
Helena Chalupová
Charles University
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Hungarian Historical Review Volume 14 Issue 4 (2025): 537-562 DOI 10.38145/2025.4.537
Records concerning mental disorders among children are sparse for the earliest period of the field of psychiatry in Bohemia, but they do exist. For a long time, however, no public care was actually available for mentally ill children. This paper investigates the formation of child psychiatry as a separate field in the Czech Lands, tracing the emergence of public care for mentally ill children and the establishment of the first educational institutions for children and adolescents. In Bohemia, these efforts date to 1871, when Karel Slavoj Amerling founded the Ernestinum, an institute for “feebleminded” children in Prague. In 1902, the first outpatient clinic for child psychiatry was established in Prague by Karel Herfort, the first professor of child psychopathology in Bohemia.
Keywords: pediatric psychiatry, mental disorders, children, Ernestinum, Karel Slavoj Amerling, Karel Herfort