Portable electronic device for treating sleep disorders
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Title
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Portable electronic device for treating sleep disorders
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Description
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The Elektron electrical sleep device manufactured in the Soviet Union was intended for the treatment of sleep disorders. A representative of the Finnish government received the device from the Soviet Union, presumably during an official state visit in the 1950s. The device was subsequently transferred to the psychiatric clinic of the University of Helsinki. A psychiatry professor who worked at the clinic recounts in his memoirs that the device was tested in the 1960s, but only a placebo effect was observed in the patients. The device is an example of how the phenomenon of "Finlandization" manifested in academic contexts. After World War II, Finland had to submit to the influence of the Soviet Union in its foreign and domestic policies. Finland and the Soviet Union had extensive bilateral cooperation, which Finland maintained in order to keep good relations with the totalitarian neighboring country. As a result of this cooperation, the University of Helsinki received scientific equipment, some of which was useful and practical, while some ended up gathering dust in the university's storages.
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Place
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University of Helsinki, The Helsinki University Museum Flame
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Rights Holder
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Helsinki University
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Temporal Coverage
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1950s
