This study aims to reconstruct the medical discourse on suicide in the late 1940s and 1950s and identify the strategies employed by medical professionals to decriminalize suicide. Despite the emergence of suicide as an important social issue in post-war Britain, the subject remained largely outside the purview of the public, policy makers and various specialist groups. However, the medical community approached the topic from a professional perspective, formed collective opinions as a specialist group, and sought to change the status quo and existing laws related to suicide. As a result, they became the only group actively engaged in the movement for suicide law reform. The strategies devised by medical professionals proved effective. They distanced themselves from moral and religious debates, framing suicide as a practical and value-neutral issue. They also adhered to a deterministic paradigm, defining suicide as the result of uncontrollable and, therefore, excusable circumstances. Factors such as mental illness, social isolation, and specific familial background were identified as major contributors to self-destruction. By focusing on cases of attempted suicide, rather than completed suicides, they shifted the debate in their favor. Finally, they argued that decriminalizing suicide would not weaken social control but instead provide a solid foundation for more efficient and powerful regulation. This discourse produced by medical professionals ultimately culminated in the passage of the Suicide Act 1961.
This study analyzes the career trajectories of students from Jeonuigam in the late nineteenth centry Joseon dynasty, shedding light on its educational functions by focusing on individuals listed in the Jeonhamsaengdoan and Byeoncheonpalsean. The primary subject of this research, the Jeonhamsaengdoan, is a valuable resource for understanding the career paths of Jeonuigam students, containing enrollment information for 384 individuals. The Byeolcheonpalsean, introduced for the first time in this paper, provides information about an alternative method of enrollment known as 'Byeolcheon' for students entering Jeonuigam. The analysis of these individuals' career paths reveals that many Jeonuigam students had overlapping enrollments in other technical institutions, such as Saekwon and Gwangsangam. This suggests that medical education was not limited to specific disciplines but was part of a broader educational framework. Moreover, the Seogyeong system allowed younger siblings to enroll alongside older ones, while the Byeolcheon system, which facilitated recommendations from other institutions, provided educational opportunities for families. These findings highlight the diverse methods in which medical and vocational education were conducted in the late nineteenth century Joseon dynasty. Approximately 66 percent of Jeonuigam students became medical officials, while others pursued careers in fields such as interpreting and various government roles, contributing to society in multiple ways. This study demonstrates that Jeonuigam was not solely focused on training medical personnel but was intricately linked to broader vocational education systems. Consequently, this study contributes to a historical understanding of medical education in the late Joseon period. Future studies should explore comparisons with Hyeminseo and Naeuiwon, changes in the social status of the middle class, and Jeonuigam's role during the transition to modern medical systems.
In this research, I aimed to recognize the historical meaning of installing the medical education center, 'Uihak', during the Silla dynasty. 'Uihak' was installed in 692, in the first year of King Hyoso 's rule. 'Uihak' was founded by using various Chinese medical classics as its textbooks for medical education, such as the Classic of Plain Questions. The wooden prescriptions excavated from Anapji, which is thought to have been created in the middle of the 8th century, and the Chinese medical book Prescriptions for Universal Benefit, which the envoy of Silla tried to acquire in 803, reflect the idea on medicine during that period in Silla. By this time, the field of medicine began to develop the idea to discern the locations and mechanism of disease patterns by centering on the viscera and bowels while making use of the herbal prescriptions based on various drugs. This means that clinical medicine founded upon the medical education achieved in 'Uihak' was being realized in the medical fields as well. According to the Chronicles of the Three States, for the illness of Queen Sunduk in 636, medicine, praying, and the method of esoteric Buddhism was tried out as a means of her cure. Comparatively, for the treatment of the first rank Chunggong in 822, the Kingdom's representative doctor with professional medical knowledge was sought out to fine a cure. The analyses of the human disease, diagnosis, treatment method, etc., given by the kingdom's representative doctor were identical to those recommended in the medical textbooks used in 'Uihak'. As such, we can posit that his academic background was 'Uihak' and the education given there. The Classic of Materia Medica, which was also used in 'Uihak', was a book professionally centered on the drug branch of medicine. The Classic of Materia Medica is a terminology referring to various books on drugs, including the Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, the Variorum of the Classic of Materia Medica, the Newly Revised Materia Medica, etc. Thus, we cannot specify what the classic of Materia Medica actually taught, based on only its terminology. However, based on the wooden prescriptions excavated from Anapji, and from the terminology of drugs recorded in the drug trading document Purchase List for Silla goods preserved in Shosoin of Japan, we can hypothesize that in the middle of the 8th century, the Newly Revised Materia Medica was indeed being circulated. Based on these evidences, we can also hypothesize that Silla was part of the network of drug trading that encompassed the entire region of Asia. After unifying the Korean peninsula, the Kingdom of Silla actively adopted the medical educational system of Tang China. By using the obtained medical knowledge, Silla cured illnesses and used the medical knowledge on various drugs recorded in the Newly Revised Materia Medica to pursue trade with China, Japan, and other countries. Through the installation of 'Uihak', the same medicine has now begun to be officially used in East Asia, including Silla.
This study analyzes the influence of the "Taipinghuiminhejijufang" (hereafter "Hejijufang"), an official Song Dynasty medical text, on the formation of Joseon's Nabyak (year-end medicine) and examines the bidirectional nature of Korea-China medical exchange and the circular process of knowledge. This study confirms that the prescriptions in "Nabyakjeungchibang" and "Eonhaenabyakjeungchibang", which were specialized medical books on Joseon's Nabyak, originated from the original Nabyak prescriptions of "Hejijufang". This research examines the localization of these original prescriptions across two dimensions: textual knowledge and social function. Regarding textual knowledge, Joseon medical texts exhibited a "standardization reliance" on Chinese medical techniques while simultaneously pursuing a "regional reconstruction" of medical terminology. In terms of social function, Uwhangcheongsimwon and Sohaphyangwon -- universal medicines for treating Feng and Qi disorders -- performed multifaceted roles in Joseon as emergency medicines, imperial gifts, and relief supplies. Furthermore, the study tracks the case of Uwhangcheongsimwon, where Joseonized knowledge was converted into material form and reintroduced to China. The treasurization of the Joseon Uwhangcheongsimwon in the Qing Dynasty was preceded by the decline in authority of the original "Hejijufang" version within China. Against this backdrop, Joseon-manufactured Uwhangcheongsimwon entered China through diplomatic envoys and became extensively popular. The factors behind the treasurization of Joseon Uwhangcheongsimwon are as follows: First, its material superiority characterized by outstanding efficacy and high-quality authentic medicinal herbs -- Joseon's ginseng and bezoar. Second, the psychological tendencies of "valuing the distant over the near" and "preferring the expensive over the cheap" endowed the Joseon medicine with a sense of mystery. Third, attendants of diplomatic envoys sold counterfeit pills, which paradoxically maximized the craving for authentic Joseon products. In conclusion, the acceptation, reverse inflow, and treasurization of "Hejijufang" prescriptions represent a large-scale practice of the "comigration of knowledge and material", showing how knowledge that acquired locality in a new space (Joseon) flows back to its original space (China) in the form of material (patented medicine). This vividly proves that medical exchange between Korea and China was not a one-way dissemination from China to Joseon, but a process of creative transformation and mutual circulation.
This article examines Thomas Morgan's medical ideas in the context of Newtonian iatromechanism in late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Britain. In existing historiography, Morgan has been studied as a deist, but his medical writings have received little attention. In fact, Morgan has been classified as a Newtonian iatromechanist, but viewed as a minor figure in comparison with other Newtonians such as Archibald Pitcairne, George Cheyne, and James Keill. Such an assessment is partly due to the fact that Morgan did not have a social connection with Isaac Newton while others did, but also because Morgan's medical writing has been considered second-class and largely repeating earlier Newtonian works. However, close examination shows that though Morgan shared some common grounds with his predecessors, he developed original interpretations in many areas. Just like Pitcairne and his followers, Morgan looked upon an animal body as a complicated living machine whose life lay in the proper circulation of blood and other fluids through the small pipes distributed throughout the body. However, Morgan differed in that he, more than others, saw heat as an important factor in physiology. He thought that fire was condensed light and that the subtle substance of elementary fire was diffused through the universe. Heated air, or the air containing elementary fire breathed in acted as an expansive force to counterbalance the attractive forces between small particles in the animal body. According to Morgan, fever, which was considered a distinct disease at the time, was caused when the heated air in the blood was not properly evacuated or when the warmed body fluids were not cooled down. Morgan also argued that the main agent of digestion was the heat operating in the stomach. His heat-based interpretation was novel but fitted into the existing understanding of physical matters including the animal body, and it provided explanation about some physiological phenomena which were not fully explained before. The explanatory power of Morgan's medical writing earned him a good reputation as a physician among his contemporaries. In the context of the transition from iatromechanism to vitalism, part of Morgan's heat-based physiology may be considered as contributing to the shift, by proposing that the capacity to maintain body heat - that is, the ability to absorb, retain, and emit elementary fire and air - belonged solely to the living body.
In this study, I examine how Chinese medicine, particularly from the Song and Yuan dynasties, was received during the late Koryŏ dynasty, along with the responses of the Korean peninsula's medical community. Previous discussions of Koryŏ medicine have primarily focused on hyangyak, local herbs that were readily available. To move beyond these limitations, this study explores how the medical systems of the Song and Yuan were conceptualized as central, representing universal medicine, while Koryŏ's and its medical practices were positioned as peripheral, characterized as local medicine. The broader field of medicine is examined across four categories: medical principles, diagnostic methods or pathological explanations, formulas, and herbs. Situated on the eastern periphery of the Chinese continent, Koryŏ regarded Song medicine as advanced and central. In response, Koryŏ actively sought to study Song medical knowledge by importing comprehensive, government-compiled medical texts and petitioning for the establishment of medical education. Following the fall of Song, the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty emerged as the new ruling power and invaded Koryŏ nine times over a 30-year period. In 1259, the Koryŏ king succumbed to the Mongols (Yuan), and Koryŏ remained under the political influence of the Yuan Empire until 1356. As a result, Yuan medicine was adopted in Koryŏ, both semi-compulsorily and organically. Evidence of Yuan influence can be found in surviving Koryŏ texts, which reflect the impact of the Comprehensive Record of Sagely Benefaction, a key text emphasized in the Yuan dynasty's medical civil service examinations, as well as the new formulas introduced by the renowned physician Li Gao, Luo Tianyi. Moreover, among the writings left by Yi Saek, a Koryŏ writer, are anatomical records derived from Yuan texts and correspondence with Yang Jongjin, who is believed to be a Chinese medical practitioner. These records indicate that Koryŏ intellectuals made contact with Yuan medicine through various channels. However, effective clinical implementation of such newly acquired medical knowledge required access to specific medicinal herbs. While Koryŏ was under the Yuan rule, the close political relationship provided relatively easy access to valuable medicinal herbs, but this access was limited. As Koryŏ increasingly adopted Yuan medical practices, challenges surrounding the supply and demand of herbs became increasingly significant, prompting local medical practitioners to seek practical solutions. To Koryŏ medical scholars and practitioners residing in the periphery, the medicine of Song and Yuan represented universal medicine. While they were able to acquire the knowledge of medical principles, diagnostic methods or pathological explanations, formulas, and herbs from this universal medicine, the political and geographical distance between the center and the periphery restricted the availability of medicinal herbs in Koryŏ. The most viable response was to establish a material foundation rooted in local herbs and to compile formularies that documented local herbs and simple prescriptions composed of only a few accessible herbs. This process reveals the conflict, compromise, and adaptation that occurred as Koryŏ's local medicine confronted and adopted the universal medicine of the Chinese center.
This article examines the history of Japanese encephalitis (JE) research and disease control in South Korea from the post-liberation era through the 1990s, focusing on the gap between the accumulation of scientific knowledge and its translation into effective public health policy. Drawing on epidemiological reports, government documents, medical journals, and newspaper sources, this study analyzes three interconnected dimensions of Korea's JE history. First, it traces how knowledge about JE was produced through transnational networks-including U.S. military medical laboratories, the World Health Organization's malaria eradication program, and Korean scientists trained abroad. As such, this body of knowledge was externally structured, rather than through an independent domestic research infrastructure, and thus it failed to translate consistently into government prevention policy. Second, this study examines how DDT-centered vector control became the principal instrument of JE prevention, and how the repeated limitations of insecticide-based interventions helped produce a discourse that attributed outbreaks to rural backwardness. This narrative deflected attention from the structural deficiencies of the prevention system itself. Finally, this study shows that vaccination-long anticipated as the solution to JE-also faced its own institutional obstacles. The failure to secure adequate funding, the privatization of vaccine production, the shift to fee-based individual vaccination, and the absence of mandatory vaccination requirements collectively delayed stable preventive coverage until the mid-1980s, when rising vaccination rates finally produced a sustained decline in JE incidence. Taken together, this history demonstrates that the management of JE in modern Korea was shaped less by the availability of scientific knowledge or biomedical technology than by the presence or absence of the institutional foundations necessary to operationalize it.
This article critically reconsiders existing explanations for the adoption of "German medicine" in early Meiji Japan and reconstructs the institutional and political context of that decision by focusing on Sagara Chian's conception of medical authority (iken) and his project of medical professionalization. Previous studies have explained the shift largely in terms of the academic superiority of German medicine, the German provenance of Dutch-learning medical texts, the advice of foreign advisers such as Verbeck and Bauduin, political or ideological affinity between Japan and Prussia, or factional conflict surrounding William Willis. Yet these explanations do not sufficiently clarify why the final outcome took the form of a German-style institutional model combining university-based medical education, state examinations and licensure, a hierarchical professorial order, and state regulation of medical practice. This article first shows that, in the aftermath of the Boshin War, the British model represented by William Willis enjoyed strong political legitimacy within the new Meiji government. It then traces the appointments of Sagara Chian and Iwasa Jun, the proposal and collapse of the dual-employment proposal, and the subsequent politics of separation and compromise, arguing that the crucial issue was not a simple confrontation between pro-British and pro-German camps but a contest over who would control medical education, institutional design, and the authority to certify physicians. It further demonstrates that Sagara understood "Germany" not as a repository of superior medical techniques but as an institutional model linking the university, state licensure, hierarchical academic authority, military medicine, and hygienic administration. In this light, the adoption of "German medicine" in early Meiji Japan is best understood less as passive reception of a purportedly superior foreign medicine than as an institutional choice through which the modern Japanese state sought to reorganize physicians into a state-managed and state-certified profession. This reinterpretation sheds light not only on the formation of the Meiji state and its professional order but also on the broader genealogy of modern medical education in East Asia, including colonial Korea.
This study examines the establishment and operation of the Chemulpo Women's Dispensary to clarify the patterns and historical character of women's medical work in Incheon during the Japanese colonial period. Previous studies have made only fragmentary references to the fact that the dispensary was founded in 1921 by Rosetta S. Hall, without sufficiently addressing its practical operations or its relationship with the local community. The findings reveal that the Chemulpo Women's Dispensary functioned not merely as an outcome of missionary expansion, but as a regional medical hub that filled a critical gap in specialised healthcare for women and children in colonial Incheon, where public hospitals were largely oriented towards the Japanese population. Its daily operations were not unilaterally directed by Western missionaries; rather, they were sustained through the continuous participation and medical practice of Korean female physicians. This process was closely connected to the formation of women's social roles as modern medical professionals. Furthermore, the dispensary expanded its activities beyond general outpatient care to include infant welfare, prenatal care, itinerant medical services, and hygiene education, thereby promoting public health awareness and preventative medicine within the local community. Its institutional growth during the colonial period was underpinned by close collaboration with the Methodist Church, particularly through the organisation of support committees and the deployment of Bible Women, which together facilitated the construction of local networks of care. Although the dispensary's formal operations were suspended under Japanese repression in the 1940s, it was reopened after liberation and has maintained historical continuity as the Incheon Christian Hospital. By examining the case of the Chemulpo Women's Dispensary, this study elucidates the localisation of Christian women's medical institutions and contributes to broadening regional perspectives within the historiography of modern Korean medicine and the history of women's medicine.
This study examines the reception and eventual decline of psychoanalysis, which remained outside the psychiatric mainstream in prewar Japan, in the Department of Neuropsychiatry at Keijo Imperial University. It traces the scholarly formation of Kubo Kiyoji, who led the department, and the development of psychoanalytic research within the department. It focuses on the personal and intellectual networks of Japanese psychiatry and on Keijo Imperial University's position within the academic hierarchy. Kubo encountered psychoanalysis through Eugen Bleuler, director of the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, while studying in Zurich. This exposure provided him with an intellectual framework distinct from the German psychiatry tradition that was dominant in Japanese psychiatry. Consequently, the research output of the Department of Neuropsychiatry at Keijo Imperial University reflected Kubo's interests. The department produced articles introducing psychoanalytic theory and clinical case reports through the early 1930s. At the same time, Kubo adopted psychoanalytic theory eclectically rather than embracing it in its entirety, similar to Bleuler, who had maintained a cautious distance from Freud since the mid-1910s. Furthermore, Japanese psychiatry was shaped by a hierarchical structure centered on Kure Shuzo, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, within which psychoanalysis remained non-mainstream. Under these conditions, psychoanalytic research at Keijo Imperial University did not become a sustained departmental program and did not develop into sustained collaboration with Tohoku Imperial University, where psychoanalysis was actively pursued. Instead, the department's research gradually shifted toward somatic therapies and other fields with more visible findings, a shift better suited to the department's academic position. Consequently, the discontinuation of psychoanalytic research at Keijo Imperial University was not simply the result of a change in Kubo's personal interests. Rather, it reflected the structural conditions under which Keijo, as a peripheral imperial university, had to concentrate its resources on research fields more favorable to securing academic prestige. By tracing this case, this study suggests that research in the medical faculty of Keijo Imperial University was affected not only by the personal and intellectual networks of medicine in the Japanese Empire, but also by Keijo's position as a peripheral imperial university.
This study examines how physicians and scholar-officials of the Song dynasty reconceptualized and medically confronted zhang -an uncontrolled and deadly tropical disease endemic to the Lingnan region of southern China. Since ancient times, the expansion of the Chinese cultural sphere toward the south had been shadowed by fears of the region's hot, humid climate and the "poisonous vapors" (duqi) believed to cause fatal illnesses. These environmental anxieties contributed to the cultural Othering of Lingnan as an uncivilized and perilous frontier, inhabited by "barbarian" peoples and veiled in superstition. While Sui and Tang physicians such as Chao Yuanfang and Sun Simiao distinguished zhang from cold damage (shanghan) and epidemic fevers (wenyi), their understanding remained theoretical and classificatory, relying on bianbing (disease categorization) rather than individualized bianzheng (pattern differentiation). In contrast, Song-period physicians-particularly the so-called ruyi (Confucian physicians)-advanced an empirical and practice-oriented medicine. Through direct observation and clinical experience, they transformed zhang from an untamed and supernatural affliction into a diagnosable and treatable syndrome grounded in empirical reasoning. This transformation unfolded within the broader socio-political context of the Song dynasty, when the empire's political and economic center shifted southward and the development of Lingnan became a national concern. The state's medical bureaus undertook extensive compilation projects, producing formularies such as the Taiping Huimin Heji Jufang and Shengji Zonglu Zuanyao, which aimed to standardize treatments throughout the empire. Yet these texts, rooted in northern medical paradigms, often failed to address the specific climatic and pathological conditions of the Lingnan tropics. In response, scholar-officials and local physicians-including Li Qiu, Zhang Zhiyuan, Wang Fei, Wang Nanyong, and Zhang Jie-compiled medical works such as the Lingnan Weisheng Fang. Drawing upon firsthand clinical encounters, they emphasized the importance of pulse examination, symptom differentiation, and ecological adaptation in treatment. Their efforts reflected a synthesis of classical medical theory and local medical knowledge, bridging state medicine and regional realities. Ultimately, this study argues that the transformation of zhang from a numinous affliction into a treatable disease signifies a critical epistemological shift in Chinese medical history. By confronting fear through observation, classification, and practice, Song physicians extended the boundaries of both medical rationality and civilization itself. The conquest of the "untamed disease" thus metaphorically represents the taming of the southern frontier and the integration of its environment into the moral and intellectual order of the empire.
This study reexamines the position and significance of the Jain medical tradition, long marginalized in the history of Indian medicine, by analyzing the embryological discourse in the Jain text Taṇḍulaveyāliya. Existing narratives of Indian medical history have predominantly centered on Ayurveda, with Kenneth G. Zysk asserting that Jainism "failed to systematize medicine within its monastic tradition." However, Mari J. Stuart demonstrated the institutionalization of Jain monastic medicine through her study of 6th-7th century Śvetāmbara commentaries. Building upon this foundation, the present study advances this scholarship by analyzing the specific content and characteristics of Jain medical knowledge, thereby contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the landscape of ancient Indian medical history. The Taṇḍulaveyāliya, a 7th-century text belonging to the prakīrṇaka (miscellaneous) section of the Jain canon, contains substantial material on embryology and anatomy. Drawing on Walther Schubring's critical edition (1969) and Colette Caillat's pioneering research (1974), this study examines the embryology section (Section A: verses 3-16, prose pp. 4,2-7,16), focusing on the anatomical structure of the female uterus, the three constitutive elements of conception (soul, oyā, and semen), monthly stages of fetal development, the dual vascular system and umbilical nutrition, and theories of sex determination. The analysis reveals that the Taṇḍulaveyāliya inherited the tradition of the early Jain canonical text Bhagavātisūtra(=Viyāhapannatti) while selectively incorporating and reworking theories from classical Ayurvedic texts (Carakasaṃhitā and Suśrutasaṃhitā). Particularly noteworthy is the systematization of fetal development by month and the addition of the umbilical cord (nābhi-rasa-haraṇī) as a nutritional mechanism, which demonstrates a strategic synthesis of the dual vascular theory from Jain scripture with the umbilical theory from Ayurveda. This reflects an intention to integrate more precise medical knowledge while respecting the authority of indigenous tradition. Furthermore, this text reinterprets the same medical knowledge within Jainism's distinctive philosophical and ethical framework. While Ayurveda aims at health and healing, the Taṇḍulaveyāliya reconstructs the processes of fetal development and birth from the perspectives of suffering (duḥkha) and impurity (aśuci), utilizing them as instruments of religious awakening that encourage abandoning attachment to the body and pursuing liberation. Together with Jain medical ethics that excludes animal-derived medicines in accordance with the principle of non-violence (ahiṃsā) and employs only plant and mineral substances, this constitutes the unique religio-medical character of Jain medicine. This study directly refutes Zysk's thesis of Jain medical "non-systematization," demonstrating that Jainism not only possessed medical knowledge but systematically compiled and reinterpreted it in ways consonant with its religious worldview. Through this analysis, the study proposes that the history of ancient Indian medicine should be reconstructed not as a "linear narrative centered on Ayurveda," but as a "complex of plural medical traditions" in which Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jainism shared a common foundation of medical knowledge while differentially recontextualizing it within their respective worldviews.
This paper focuses on a central paradox in the childrearing advice of American pediatrician and beloved "baby doctor" Benjamin Spock: his seemingly permissive approach to control, fostered through a new psychology, in fact represented a new mode of control. The study explores this paradox by closely examining how Spock developed his ideas on parental self-control. By shifting the foundation of self-control, his advice supported the emergence of a new form of authority-strengthened by more internalized and elaborate guidelines. Challenging the widespread belief that Spock's methods were simply looser or more lenient, this study traces the transformation of his childrearing ideas from authoritative and visible forms of control to subtle and internal ones in the mid-twentieth-century United States. Spock's influential The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care revolutionized twentieth-century parenting by emphasizing parents' confidence in their own judgment and the critical role of emotional maturity in childrearing. Rather than advocating rigid rules or permissiveness, Spock focused on how parents could cultivate self-control and emotional regulation to promote healthier parent-child relationships. A core tenet of his philosophy was distinguishing between controllable and uncontrollable aspects of parenting, which helped alleviate feelings of helplessness and inadequacy among parents. By fostering mothers' self-awareness and encouraging recognition of their individual limits, Spock provided a framework that enhanced emotional comfort and a sense of control during childcare-benefiting both parents and their children alike. Spock's psychoanalytic interests deeply influenced his focus on parental emotional control, particularly the mother's crucial role in fostering a child's emotional growth and self-confidence. He maintained that a mother's unconditional love and consistent presence were indispensable, warning parents against showing dissatisfaction with their child's flaws, as such expressions could undermine the child's self-esteem. Parents were encouraged to regulate negative emotions-such as disappointment and frustration-especially in challenging contexts like feeding difficulties or toilet training, where parental negativity might provoke defiance or resistance. For Spock, emotional maturity, characterized by patience and measured reactions, was essential for effective discipline and for mitigating undesirable behaviors in children. Spock's broader influence challenged prevailing mid-twentieth-century norms that often prioritized strict discipline and emotional restraint. He promoted a flexible, affectionate approach that recognized children as individuals with unique needs and personalities. This philosophy invited parents to trust their instincts while balancing emotional regulation, enabling them to respond sensitively and effectively to their children. Spock's work fostered a cultural shift toward more humane and psychologically informed parenting, shaping generations of families with its blend of psychoanalytic insight and practical advice.
In recent years, growing attention to the social integration of persons with psychosocial disabilities into their local communities has intensified calls to shift Korea's hospital-centered mental health system toward a community-based model. Historically, the Korean mental health system has often been framed through the narrative of a "delayed transition," which suggests that the country is belatedly undergoing the deinstitutionalization experienced in Western societies during the 1960s and 1970s. However, this linear account fails to explain a crucial divergence: during the very decades when deinstitutionalization was being debated and implemented in several Western countries, Korea was rapidly expanding its psychiatric institutions and hospital beds, entrenching a long-term institutional regime. This article reexamines the 1960s through the 1980s as a critical juncture in the formation of Korea's mental health system by tracing the debates and strategic interactions among the state, the psychiatric profession, and civil society surrounding the enactment of the Mental Health Act. During the 1960s and 1970s, authoritarian regimes adopted a social defense framework that cast people with mental illness as potential threats, thereby legitimizing a system of confinement. The 1983 "prayer house" (gidowon) scandal, however, publicly exposed the realities of institutionalization and briefly opened a window for communitybased alternatives within the psychiatric profession. The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association adopted community mental health as its official orientation, and in the mid-1980s a community mental health project was carried out on Ganghwa Island. Yet this opening was foreclosed by a convergence of countervailing forces: As the legislative process leading to the 1985 Mental Health Act became structured around a dichotomy between psychiatric nursing homes and hospitals, the psychiatric profession pursued a strategy of transition "from facilities to hospitals," thereby consolidating an admission-centered system. This strategy aligned with state interests in expanding hospital beds for purposes of social defense while simultaneously curtailing public welfare expenditure. At the same time, the expansion of health insurance and medical aid programs in the 1980s increased service utilization, creating economic incentives for further growth in psychiatric beds. Meanwhile, civil society's human rights discourse emerged as an extension of resistance to the authoritarian regime and focused on procedural safeguards against involuntary hospitalization; however, it did not lead to a fundamental reconfiguration of the confinement-centered system itself. Rather than reducing the formation of the Korean mental health system to a problem of developmental delay-often framed as a "fifty-year gap with the West"-this study highlights the multiple possibilities and alternative trajectories embedded in its history and invites a historically grounded rethinking of the current Korean mental health system.
This article examines the historical trajectory of South Korea's maternal and child health (MCH) programs from the late 1970s to the 1980s, focusing on the establishment and operation of MCH centers funded by the World Bank population loan. It investigates how these centers reflected the evolving relationship between population control policies and public health services within South Korea's developing healthcare system. The MCH centers, established nationwide but primarily located in rural areas, were intended to improve maternal and infant health indicators while ultimately contributing to fertility reduction. Despite the ambitious vision of integrating family planning with comprehensive maternal and child healthcare, the centers faced significant challenges, including funding shortages, difficulties in recruiting midwives, and competition from the rapidly expanding private medical sector, which offered modern diagnostic technologies and access to specialist physicians. In response, the government attempted to redirect remaining funds toward establishing comprehensive MCH centers within private hospitals; however, this shift did not substantially increase the utilization of local MCH centers. This study demonstrates that, despite the rhetoric emphasizing maternal and child health, MCH programs remained subordinate to fertility control objectives within South Korea's population policy framework. The history of these centers highlight the tension between demographic goals and public health service needs, as well as the complex interplay between international development organizations, national policy priorities, and local healthcare practices during a period of rapid social transformation in South Korea.
This paper examines the history of mask-wearing regulations in barbershops in colonial Korea, specifically in Keijō (modern-day Seoul) during the 1910s and 1920s. It focuses on the introduction and implementation of these regulations, as well as their political involvement with colonial hygiene governance and ethnic politics in the barbering industry. In 1911, the Government-General of Korea introduced a mask-wearing mandate for barbers as part of the Barbering Business Regulation Rule, making it one of the earliest mask mandates in the Japanese Empire. Initially, the colonial police enforced this rule to discipline colonial subjects under the guise of hygiene. However, starting in the mid-1910s, both Korean and Japanese barbering professionals began to utilize this regulation to compete against the rising number of Chinese migrant barbers. This paper illustrates how hygiene-related regulations, including the mask mandate in barbershops, interacted with ethnic rivalries within the colonial Korean barbering industry. Stereotypes portraying Chinese barbers as unhygienic and their shops as unsanitary were produced and fueled as Korean and Japanese barbers sought to eliminate their Chinese competitors, often with support from the colonial police. Ultimately, this case study will shed new light on the history of hygienic masks, which has so far mostly focused on medical settings, and will suggest future research avenues, particularly regarding its intersection with the social history of medicine.
This paper examines the challenges and improvements associated with the training curriculum and implementation of the Peace Corps Health Auxiliary Program in South Korea from 1967 to 1970. Established as part of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, the Peace Corps sought to promote modernization emphasizing economic productivity in developing countries through volunteer efforts. From 1967 to 1981, the Peace Corps dispatched approximately 500 health volunteers to South Korea across 18cohorts. These volunteers worked in local health centers on tuberculosis control, mother and child health, and other public health initiatives. Despite the program's significance, the operational aspects of the health initiative and the activities undertaken by the volunteers remain under-explored in academic literature. The early phases of the program, particularly the K-4 and K-6 cohorts, faced the challenge of transforming non-specialist B.A. generalists into competent health workers in the Korean medical field. These efforts encountered significant obstacles, including limited understanding of local health conditions, a lack of volunteers' expertise, and inadequate operational guidelines. These shortcomings contributed to high early termination rates among volunteers. The enactment of the Tuberculosis Control Act in 1968 marked a turning point for the program, leading to improved coordination between donor and recipient parties and broadening the focus of the health program to include additional public health initiatives after the K-13 group. This study highlights the importance of a well-structured pre-service training curriculum and collaborative engagement with relevant authorities for successful program outcomes. It illustrates that, while initial public health efforts faced setbacks, they laid the foundation for subsequent improvements in health services in Korea. This study underscores the need for continued exploration of the Peace Corps' comprehensive health initiatives and their long-term impacts.
This article analyzes the formation of the development-oriented path of the South Korean healthcare system in the 1960s as a complex outcome of shifts in domestic politics and foreign aid. To this end, it focuses on the Public Health Evaluation & Planning Program (1960-1962), a program that coincided with the intersection of political upheavals-the April Revolution and the May 16 military coup-and a transition in U.S. aid policy to Korea. The April Revolution led to the collapse of the Syngman Rhee regime, which had prioritized defense and development, allowing a welfare state discourse to emerge. Popular aspirations unleashed by the revolution created cracks in the ideological landscape of the 1950s, which had been dominated by the defense-and-development-first policy. From a perspective advocating the harmonization of welfare and the economy, Korean health experts and the USOM Health and Sanitation Division strongly argued for an expanded governmental role in healthcare after the revolution. This effort materialized as the Public Health Evaluation & Planning Program, a common preliminary step for long-term health planning in the international health field at the time. The military junta, which seized power through the coup a year after the revolution, sealed the cracks created by the revolution. They adopted an explicit development-first policy and focused on economic development, grounded in the logic of subsuming welfare within the framework of economic growth. Concurrently, aiming to reduce the economic burden of aid, the U.S. government rapidly curtailed public health assistance-the material foundation of Korea's healthcare system. Furthermore, amidst the reorganization of aid agencies, the USOM Health and Sanitation Division-which had emphasized the parallel pursuit of welfare and development-was dismantled. USOM began to promote the establishment of a development-oriented healthcare system in Korea. The Korean healthcare system rapidly achieved 'self-sufficiency' from the U.S. but without the intended expansion of the government's role. This dual shock of the early 1960s-the military coup and the shift in U.S. aid policy-functioned as a critical juncture, locking the Korean healthcare system into the development-oriented path.
This paper analyzes the historical origins and contents of the "Prices of Herbal Medicines" and "Prices of Prescription Medicines" sections within Gosachalyo (Selected Essentials on Verified Facts, 1554), examining how the accumulation of medical knowledge during the early Joseon dynasty influenced sixteenth century public healthcare services and clinical practices. These price lists, which detail medicinal herbs and prescription drugs sold by the Jeonuigam (Directorate of Medicine) and the Hyeminseo (Office of Benefiting the People)-the Joseon government's primary public healthcare institutions-were based on prices established during the reign of King Seongjong (1469-1494), with some subsequent adjustments. By the early sixteenth century, 141 prescriptions had been compiled in Yakmyeong (Names of Medicines). This collection was later annotated by an unknown medical official under the title Chiyobokbeop (Gist and Dosage of Medicine). During the compilation of Gosachalyo in 1553 (the eighth year of King Myeongjong's reign), royal physician Yang Yesu significantly augmented this repertoire, incorporating numerous contemporary prescriptions and organizing a list of 266 medicines. While some price adjustments are evident, the listed prices of herbal medicines and prescription drugs remained largely consistent with those established during King Seongjong's reign. The Joseon government maintained these officially promulgated prices for approximately sixty years-from the late Seongjong period until the publication of the first edition of Gosachalyo in 1554-and this price stability continued into the early seventeenth century. This policy reflects the government's commitment to ensuring a stable and accessible supply of medicines for the subjects. Compared to Yakmyeong of the early sixteenth century, the mid-sixteenth-century Gosachalyo contains nearly twice as many prescriptions, covering a broader range of diseases. The newly added prescriptions targeted prevalent societal health threats, such as dysentery, and other previously under-treated illnesses. Joseon medical practitioners actively engaged medical texts imported from the Ming dynasty, such as Yixue Zhengzhuan (Orthodox Documentations of Medicines, 1515), to meet the growing and diverse medical needs of society. By the mid-sixteenth century, Joseon's clinical medicine was transitioning from the "Old Prescription" stage-reliant on older compendia like Hejijufang (Formulas from the Imperial Pharmacy, 1148) and Dexiaofang (Effective Formulas, 1337)-to a "New Prescription" stage, characterized by the adoption of the Ming dynasty's medical knowledge. These sixteenth-century imports not only revolutionized Joseon's clinical practices but also significantly impacted the government's public health initiatives.
This article aims to analyze the types of surgical diseases and treatments in ancient China as documented in bamboo and silk texts, with a particular focus on (external) injury, tetanus, burns, rectal and anal diseases, and inguinal hernias. For this analysis, I gathered 85 instances of disease and treatments recorded in these texts. The 85 cases were further categorized into 13 (external) injuries, 13 metal wounds, 6 tetanus, 22 burns, 16 rectal and anal diseases, and 15 inguinal hernias. The analysis revealed that the treatment of (external) injury and burns focused primarily on the wound site, while the treatment of metal wounds and tetanus centered on addressing the internal body. Internal treatments were mainly prescribed through the use of medicine and food. Surgical intervention was recommended primarily for diseases of the rectum and anus, with medications applied to the woundspost-surgery. For inguinal hernias, a high-protein diet was typically prescribed. As we've seen, in ancient China, surgical diseases were mainly treated with medication, surgery, and dietary prescriptions. And among these prescriptions, drug prescriptions were utilized not only by medical doctors but also by witch-doctors treating diseases in civilian society and soldiers stationed at frontline military posts. In the absence of medical doctors in both civilian society and frontline units, witch-doctors and frontline units purchased or stockpiled prescription drugs and used them to treat patients according to prescription.