Project News
Workshop Spotlight
We are delighted to share that Anna Toropova recently took part in the workshop Histories of Child Mental Health, held on 22–23 April 2026 at the University of Southern Denmark in Copenhagen.
At the workshop, she delivered a paper titled 'The Nervous Child: Early Soviet Psychiatry and Childhood Trauma.' Her presentation traced the growing concern about children’s mental health after the October Revolution. Mapping ruptures and continuities between the 1920s and the Stalinist 1930s, she discussed the evolution of understandings of child nervousness through the early Soviet period.
Edited Volume Contribution
We are pleased to share that Anna Toropova has contributed a chapter to the edited volume Psychiatry after Kraepelin: Ambition, Image and Practices, edited by George Ikkos and Thomas Becker. Released in March 2026 and now available online, this open-access volume brings together rich historical and philosophical reflections on Kraepelin’s legacy across disciplines, alongside perspectives informed by the lived experiences of mental health service users.
In her chapter, 'Soviet Psychiatry: The Stalin Years,' Anna explores the complex and evolving reception of Kraepelin in Soviet psychiatry, tracing its trajectory from initial engagement to its eventual rejection under Stalin. Her contribution thinks through the intersections of psychiatric theory, political context, and intellectual change.
Click the link to look at the volume and read Anna's article.Link opens in a new window
New Publication
We are pleased to announce that Anna Toropova has published a new article, ‘From Neurasthenia to “Experimental Neurosis”: Soviet Cinema, Psychiatry and the Problem of Nervousness’, in Isis, the journal of the History of Science Society.
Published in March 2026, the article uses cinematic engagements with the question of neurosis to re-examine the extent to which the Soviet psy-disciplines were subordinated to a biological model of the mind in the Stalin era.
The article is available to read online via the provided linkLink opens in a new window.
Public Engagement
On 6 February 2026, Warwick Institute of Engagement and the Centre for the History of Medicine, Science and Technology are delighted to invite everyone to a film screening and panel discussion of the rare Ukrainian health education film For Women, About Women (directed by Yevheniia Hryhorovych, 1930), on women’s health. Click the link to read the details and book your free ticketLink opens in a new window.
Conference Highlight
We are delighted to share that Anna Toropova, Principal Investigator of the Traumatised Project, recently delivered a paper, 'Children’s Trauma in Late Stalinist Psychiatry and Culture,' at the Imagining the Child’s Mind Conference, held on 29–30 January 2026 at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The paper traced how childhood traumatisation became a thriving topic of research in Soviet psychiatry between 1917 and 1953. Tracing the intersection of psychiatric languages of trauma and vernacular expressions of mental distress, the paper explored how a series of films on children’s wartime experiences, including There Once Lived a Girl (Eisymont, 1943), echoed the medical interest in the impact of war on the child’s mind.
Past Event Report
On 8-9 May 2025, the University of Warwick hosted the workshop titled Cultures of Trauma in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The workshop marked the start of the Traumatised Minds project. Click the link to read more about the eventLink opens in a new window.
Call for Papers
Centre for the History of Medicine, Science, and Technology is excited to announce the first event of the five-year research initiative: Traumatised Minds: Neurosis and Hysteria in Soviet Medicine and Culture, 1917-1953.
An international workshop, Cultures of Trauma in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, is scheduled to take place at the University of Warwick (UK) on 8-9 May 2025. Click the link to view the call for papers.