This photograph shows the reception hall in the original farmhouse which became the Menninger Sanitarium. 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 farmhouse and admittance of 12 patients. Their philosophy was that mental illness could be treated with an integrated medical, psychodynamic, and developmental approach for the total health of patients. Arguably, 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.
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