These three black and white photographs show various hydra therapy methods. Wet sheet packs and shower and spray treatments were used instead of drugs or mere custodial care. These photographs were used in some publicity about the early Menninger Clinic. Dr. C.F. Menninger and his sons, Dr. Karl and Dr. Will, formed a group psychiatry practice in 1919. The Menninger Clinic as a sanitarium was established in 1925 with the purchase of a farm house and admittance of 12 patients. The major contribution of Menninger may be that at a time when custodial care or the asylum were the only alternatives for the mentally ill, the Menningers brought a positive commitment to psychiatry. They did not believe that the fate of mentally ill people was to be warehoused; they believed mental illness could be treated.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Early mental care treatment at Menninger in Topeka, Kansas - 2