Museums offer a glimpse of history and your present relates to the past. Many museums have lost interest and are only offering a recreational look. Whereas the ones such as those linked to psychotherapy offer a great learning place. Visiting such places enlightens you about the history of medicine and the way of practitioners of the past.
Interlinking both time zones, you develop a sense of many ideas. For example, a museum showcasing older tools of medicine can show you how far the present tooling has come. And what advancements you can witness. Many such initiatives and visits have developed authors, psychiatrists, and physicians.
In London, several museums exist that offer a wide scope of learning psychotherapy world. Many house objects and exhibits whereas others include a library encouraging young therapists to learn more. Below, we highlight some of the eye-catching medical museums London shortlisted.
7 London Psychotherapy Museums to Visit
1. The Freud Museum
Named after Sigmund Freud, this museum is a masterpiece just like his work in psychoanalysis. Although some term it as a haunted house alongside a clinic or a church, it houses great elements from his life. After escaping Austria and from the Nazi's grasp, Freud came to the place where he lived in the final year of his life.
With its location in Maresfield Gardens, personalities such as Leonard Wolf, Virginia Wolf, and Salvador Dali have visited this mental health museum. Inside, it houses some perfect elements from Freud’s life, most notably the enchanting couch. It is said that Freud used to rest his patients on the couch and ask them to emit their thoughts. Paintings, books, antiques, rugs, and furniture in several corners occupy the rest of the house which is now officially a museum.
2. Bethlem Royal Hospital Museum
Founded in 1247, this Museum has grown a long way that now it is center stage for artwork, situated in an Art Deco Building presently. This museum is along the Bethlem Gallery that hosts an exhibition of artists that have been a patient of the hospital.
The artworks remain the primary point of attraction within this museum. For example, the famous sculptures statues of Raving and Melancholy Madness from the gates of the Hospital in the 17th century are trademarks. Other artworks include that of mental health patients such as Richard Dadd and Louis Wain.
3. Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum
This place is truly what you may call a leap into the history books. We do not know the methods of treating mental health patients before the advent of psychotherapy. But that does not mean we cannot find out by exploring history. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum includes all the ancient tools that practitioners used to treat mental health patients.
In the following museum which still resembles an ancient look presently, you can find ancient bleeding bowels and powdered rock crystal such as for melancholy. In truth, the museum, established in 1842, contains around 45000 tools of mental health treatments of older times.
4. The Institute of Psychoanalysis
Some museums are not your ordinary or regular museums but an institute within. The Institute of Psychoanalysis is one such institute that trains psychoanalysts. But some institutes train while some host events that inform the community. This institute does both, i.e. it trains psychoanalysts and arranges events and seminars every week.
As for the institute, it has a perfect library that houses tremendous collections of volumes. It is said that the institute’s library houses around 22000 volumes of literature. The literature date back to the 19th century till the present. Private collections from Ernest Jones, James Strachey, and Donald Winnicott are what the library owns. You can follow the institute’s website for weekly seminars and events likewise.
5. The Wellcome Museum
Sir Henry Wellcome had a passionate love for collections that related to medicine and health. Being a philanthropist and a pharmacist, the Wellcome Museum houses his collection of extraordinary tools relating to human health. Not only this, but the museum also houses skeletons and statues that depict the human body in several artistic ways.
The museum houses around 1 million objects that speak volumes of Sir Wellcome’s love for medical objects. Every psychology fan will love the Wellcome Library which includes extraordinary volumes on medicine. In addition, the library hosts insight sessions detailing medicine history informally that educate young psychologists.
6. The Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine is a prestigious institute that is linked to medicine. Its goal is to continue efforts of learning for healthcare professionals. What started in a meeting in two rooms in barrister’s chambers in Gray’s Inn, is now located at the corner of Wimpole Street after the order of King George V in 1910.
Presently, apart from offering attestation to medical health professionals under the branch of itself as a society of medicine, it has another title to itself. The library is famous for holding a Diamond Collection that includes 22 photographs of psychiatric patients. Members of the society also have access to databases of psychological practices of 1806 and onwards.
7. The Science Museum
The Science Museum is a free place to witness extraordinarily diverse items relating to medical health. From a collection of books to artwork and exhibitions, there is a learning environment throughout the museum. Award-winning exhibitions include one based around the human mind, which encompasses the last 250 years of psychological examination named ‘Mind Maps’.
Apart from exhibitions, the psychology museum London is also a host to thousands of objects relating to mental health and medicine. According to many, this museum showcases a diversity of activities at best such as objects and award-winning exhibitions. As per many, it is a perfect place to poke your head and learn more about the place!
Conclusion
Above, you get to know what different places encompass for you. It has also given you a light ahead of the tunnel that which places must be on your visiting list. You can learn a lot in several ways from the museums above. The learning ones can visit the museums that have physical artworks, statues, and tooling objects on offer.
This will include a fine learning and understanding curve for them. As for the psychotherapists, old and new, they must on the places that house a perfect library. Several volumes in libraries can easily enlighten their brains regarding psychoanalysis. A special mention in this regard goes out to the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience Library.
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