This study analyses the fact that young adults under the age of 21 were sent to mental institutions in the early 20th century. To further examine this statement, three main questions provide insights about life inside of the mental hospital in Växjö, Sweden. What factors did overall result in psychiatric care for young adults in the early 20thcentury? By using microhistory as a historical method, what aspects can indicate patient's subordinate role at the hospital? How can the psychiatric institutions be viewed from a disciplinary standpoint while focusing on the power they possess over underage individuals? The chosen institution is called Sankt Sigfrid's hospital (alsoWexio hospital) and provides valuable records and journals between the years of 1907and 1921, on which the study is based on. The results show that a total of 38 patients were admitted to the hospital under this period. Generally, there were 5 different illnesses that resulted in psychiatric care and dementia primaria was the most common one. The ages ranged between 11 and 20, with 20 as the most common age when arriving at the hospital. According to the results, most patients came from a background of farming and landowning. Poor relief was the most common factor for young adults being admitted to the hospital, whereas the second most common factor was the father overseeing the decision. Furthermore, 4 patients were part of a microhistorical study which primarily concluded that they were being subjected to constraint by the hospital. Since the material is examined from a disciplinary standpoint where the hospital is viewed in a position of power, the result is an example of psychiatric expansion through the country. This maintains the belief that psychiatric care developed through different phases of the 19th and 20th century and thus were in constant reform, whereas this study is merely an example of this process of developing.

This study examines how the mental health care institution of Sankt Sigfrid's hospital treated women discharged between 1946–1950. This study aims to understand the mental institution as an institution of power, at work through its definitions of women as sick and as healthy. The source material used in this study is case records from Sankt Sigfrid's hospital. The results from the study show that the medical certificate with the mental history and the family history of the patients were important documents for letting women enter the hospital. The family's health background documentation showed that a majority of the women had a normal childhood. The results also show that the medical certificates and the doctors' journals were embodied with negative descriptions, about patients' family- and social history, which was needed for the diagnosis and to place the individuals into a patient category. / Denna studie belyser hur institutionen Sankt Sigfrids sjukhus behandlade kvinnor som blev utskrivna åren 1946–1950. Genom att analysera sjukjournaler och vårdattester från Sankt Sigfrids sjukhus ämnar studien att förstå hur sinnessjukvården fungerade som en maktinstitution i relation till hur kvinnor ansågs sjuka respektive friska. Resultaten av denna studie visar att vårdattesten, med patientens sjukdoms- och familjehistoria var viktiga beståndsdelar för om kvinnorna fick intas eller inte. Dokumentens information om kvinnornas familjehistoria har i analysen varit viktiga då dokumenten visat att en majoritet av kvinnorna kom från normala uppväxtförhållanden. Andra resultat i studien visar att vårdattesten och läkarnas anteckningar innehöll negativa beskrivningar av patienternas familje- och sociala historia som var nödvändiga för diagnosticering och kunna placera individen i kategorin patient.