The birth of modern psychiatry - Hans Jacob Schou and the Dianalund Sanatorium.

Hans Jacob Schou (1887-1952) was a well-educated Danish specialist in nervous diseases. He was persuaded in 1922 to take over the leadership of the only large scale private institution in Denmark for patients with nervous diseases, The Colony of Philadelphia, near Dianalund, on the island of Zealand. He pioneered a development of this conservative institution into a modern charity hospital for patients with all kinds of nervous and mental disorders. His newly erected sanatorium (1928) for neurotic patients came to symbolize the need for inclusion of all patients - disregarding the seriousness of their illness and disregarding their social status - in the realm of Danish psychiatry. Thus, Schou created the foundations for modern Danish psychiatry.