Abstract
This study aims to increase the understanding of ideas in Finnish psychiatric care, based primarily on texts produced by Karin Neuman-Rahn (1867 through 1962) and anchored in the history of ideas within the period in question. The main pattern encompasses the idea of vocation and service, good spirit, caring culture, and bodily care of the mentally ill. Her texts reflect a profound ethical stance, an understanding of mental life, mental suffering, the power of human will, and the idea of the possible. The research indicates that history offers much valuable wisdom that we can incorporate from history.