[Dr Stanislav Župić (1897-1973) - a remarkable figure in Croatian psychiatry]

Stanislav Župić (1897-1973) spent most of his career (1920-1962) in the Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, Zagreb, Croatia and was its 8th director from 1940 to 1941. He is remembered by a number innovations in treating psychoses, by a pioneering Croatian psychodrama (in 1938, he published a play Coming back to Life), and by introducing bibliotherapy, musical therapy, art therapy, and homeopathy to treat mental illnesses. On his initiative, the psychiatric hospital introduced treatment with insulin-provoked comma, convulsive therapy, Largactil, and other state-of-the-art psychopharmaceuticals. In addition to treatment, he provided forensic expertise. His free time he would spend writing pathographies of artists and literary critics. In 1924, he was one of the founders of the Yugoslav Anthroposophical Society Marija Sofija, which is still active in Zagreb. From 1935, he had been collecting interesting exhibits for what was to become the core of the hospital museum.