ABSTRACT
Introduction In the early years a er the Second World War, the island of Taiwan saw a rapid growth of psychoneurotic patients across di erent ethnic groups. is hidden ‘epidemic’ remained covered until the case notes of the Department of Psychiatry at the National Taiwan University Hospital were unearthed recently.1 e causation of these disorders among the su ering individuals is assumed to be dissimilar. e emergence of this phenomenon could be grounded on the external reality of the post-war societal turmoil, the altered aspiration of psychiatric services, and most importantly, the psychiatrists who found themselves accountable for the betterment among those who sought their help. is chapter, as the rst attempt to study the case notes kept by the Department of Psychiatry at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), aims to unpack the contextual meaning of such a mental disorder epidemic through analyzing this clinical archive.
