Early in the 20th century, two young medical school
graduates and their father started a small sanitarium
for mental patients on a farm outside Topeka, Kansas.
This was a time with the "rest cure" was in vouge in
psychiatry, and patients were sent to impersonal
institutions to life out their days.
This father and his sons had a different idea. They
were determined to create a loving, family atmosphere
among their patients and staff. The nurses were given
special training and were told "Let each person know
how much you value them. Shower these people with
love."
The doctors were Karl and William Menninger, and the
Minninger Clinic, with such "revolutionary" methods,
became world famous and has helped countless numbers
of people. Karl Menninger said, "Love cures people -
both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.
This intangible thing love...enters into every
theraputic relationship. It is an element which finds
and heals, which comforts and restores, which works
what we have to call for now, miracles."
