In autumn 2014, the Department of the History of Medicine at Lund University, Sweden, is organising an international symposium in collaboration with the Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine at the University Medical Center in Göttingen, Germany, on aspects of the history of medicine in the Baltic Sea region from 1850-2000. The aim is to deepen and broaden knowledge of the development of medicine in the Baltic region by illuminating currents of ideas and traditions, contact zones and areas of conflict.

The countries around the Baltic Sea share a history. The sea has long served as a means of contact for the inhabitants of coastal regions. The Baltic Sea has served to unite and facilitate communication, both in practical terms and in relation to identity. However, the points of view have never been identical. The geographic proximity has also given rise to cultural conflicts, contradictory currents of ideas, and politically constructed boundaries; barriers that have had an isolating effect and cracks that have enabled migration, both of individuals and of ideas and opinions.

From the mid-19th century, experimental medicine began to take a more distinct form. The quantitative and systematic study of medicine established itself. The methodology of measurement became dominant and the new approach resulted in progress. Medicine became a powerful science. However, the progress was accompanied by a new sociology of medicine, an altered view of the participants in health care. The dramaturgy of health care took on newforms, with increasing objectification of the patient and glorification of the doctor. Around the turn of the century, patients’ voices began to make themselves heard at the large medical institutions – sanatoria and mental hospitals.

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