Addressing silent distress
Deaconess institutes acquiring expertise on intellectual disabilities in Finland in the early twentieth century
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23310574 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pirjo Markkola (0000-0001-8776-0974, Tampere University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Review of History Revue européenne d histoire (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-7486 • E-ISSN: 1469-8293 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13507486.2026.2700646 |
| OpenAlex | W7171854743 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
The formation of new nation-states after the Great War transformed societies and provided new settings for social policies throughout Europe, including Finland. Finland gained independence in 1917 and suffered from a short but brutal civil war between Whites (government troops) and Reds (socialists) in 1918. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland supported the White winners of the war, although both factions were members of the same church. Deaconess institutes sought ways to resolve tensions between the social classes, and to find new societal relevance in their long tradition of social care among the poor and the suffering. One innovative path was found in the care of intellectually disabled children and adults. People with disabilities were seen as a novel mission field, neglected by private and public providers of care. Asylums were established and deaconesses were sent abroad to study institutional care in Germany and the Nordic countries. The new special care institutions, established in the 1920s and 1930s by the Helsinki Deaconess Institute and the Home Mission Society of the Finnish Church, were considered the most advanced special care facilities for people with intellectual disabilities. This process can be conceptualized as a transformation in which the church-based charities met the challenges of modernity by assuming a new position as leading experts in disabilities.
Civil society · Health care · Independence (probability theory) · Modernity · Relevance (law) · Social change · Spanish Civil War · White (mutation) · White paper · World War II · Historical Legal Studies and Society · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Medical History and Research
Gender
Citizen, State, and Social Welfare in Britain 1830–1990
Lived Institutions as History of Experience
Katsaus vammaisuuden historian tutkimukseen
Buildings on the Fringes of Society – 19th Century Protestant Asylums for ‘Idiots’ as Places of Hyper-Inclusion
Religion and Society in England, 1850–1914
Sexuality as Disability
Misplaced optimism or a missed opportunity? Child welfare policies of a latecomer country, Finland 1918–36
Developing Issues in the Classification of Mental and Physical Disabilities
State of the Field
| Highly cited | No |
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