ACTA HISTRIAE

Curing and Building Trust

Francesco Toncich — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This paper transnationally examines the crucial role of public health after the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, focusing on the new borderlands around the Slo- venian part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes: the “Rapallo Border” with the Italian Kingdom and the border with the Republic of German Austria, which cut through the former Duchies of Styria and Carinthia. Health and disease played central roles in redefining identities, legal affiliations, and trust-based relationships between civilians, physicians, and the new “successor states”. This text offers a broader view of public health, moving beyond state-centred perspectives to include the “patient’s viewpoint” and the intimate doctor-patient relationship.

The Cost of the “Unclaimed”

Maura Hametz — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This article explores the intersections of the political citizenship and health- care management in Italy’s newly annexed provinces from the Treaty of Saint Ger- main’s coming into force to the Fascist legal absorption of the new territories in the reforms of 1926. It examines the role of Liberal internationalist philosophies and policies in the shaping of borderland practices and traces the continuities of Liberal approaches into the Fascist period, focusing on local strategies to bal- ance humanitarian care concerns with nationalizing priorities and demographic policies.

Shattered Minds in Shatter Zones

Dagmar Wernitznig — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This article contextualizes questions of citizenship at the intersections of gender, statehood, and notions of ‘normalcy’ in post-1918 Carinthia. Integral to this study is the analysis of psychiatric files of female patients in the aftermaths of the Great War as pertinent, yet generally overlooked sources for microhistorical approaches towards post-conflict nation building. For this contribution, women’s psychiatric records of the Landeskrankenanstalt (Provincial Hospital) in Klagenfurt/Celovec for the period from 1918 to 1923 are investigated. At the nexus of in/sanity, patriarchy, and patriotism, such documents can shed new light on processes of in- as well as exclusion of certain individuals, especially when of the ‘other’ sex and ‘unchaperoned’.

Inherited Systems, New Realities

Jelena Rafailović — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200

With the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, the unification and organization of the healthcare system began throughout the new state. The regions inherited health, social, and sanitary laws, with some regulations inherited from the Habsburg Monarchy, while others differed from Habsburg legislation or were entirely absent. This article explores the organization of healthcare in the immediate post-World War I period, highlighting foundational aspects and the influence of regional legacies. A comparative, transnational perspective on public health structures across politically and socially diverse territories offers insight into postwar societal transformation, question- ing whether systemic changes prevailed or traditional structures persisted.

Biology or Environment? Diagnostic Trends in Slovenian Psychiatry from World War I to World War II

Ana Cergol Paradiž — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This article examines the role of psychiatrists and psychiatric institutions in the Slovenian environment during the tumultuous periods of World War I, the in- terwar years, and World War II. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative analy- ses of 2,220 patient files from the Ljubljana Psychiatric Hospital, it explores diagnostic trends, focusing on the role of biological determinism in explaining mental disease. The study highlights the influence of Habsburg-era scientific hereditary/biologically oriented traditions and the broader socio-political con- texts shaping psychiatric practices. It also investigates how war psychological suffering was understood, documented, and occasionally dismissed, reflecting broader attitudes toward mental disease and disability in Yugoslavia.

Children With Intellectual Disabilities in Croatia

Jelena Seferović — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0200

In the period between the late nineteenth century and the 1970s, the treatment of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Croatia was predominantly shaped by medical paradigms and biologically deterministic perspectives. Initial steps toward educational inclusion emerged in the 1930s with the establishment of special classes and the implementation of standardized testing, although many children continued to be excluded from formal education. In the postwar period, institutional models gradually adapted to demographic changes and evolving diagnostic practices, yet in the absence of coherent policy frameworks. The study underscores the fragmented interplay between medical, social, and educational sectors, emphasizing that sub- stantive reforms did not take shape until the early 1970s.