Guided Tours

Upper Secundary Education

During an interactive tour, we go beyond simply transferring knowledge: the students become active researchers themselves. Using original patient files, they uncover the personal stories of people who once stayed at the Guislain Institute in Ghent. They work with the site’s floor plan and consider what a hospital needs. We examine objects, photographs and diary fragments: what do these pieces teach us, and what do they mean to the students themselves, to one another, and to the world around them? The interactive tour sparks curiosity and offers a safe space for pupils to talk about what they see and how it affects them. By engaging actively with the material, they are encouraged to reflect on the importance of mental well‑being, both in the past and today.

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Birds, rats, bodies, rooms, scratches, masks; real or not real?

This is the world of Roger Ballen. The Ballenesque theatre performs and the audience joins in on demand. The scenes are confusing, relatable, tangible, absurd, appealing, impossible - yet real.

Discover a wealth of objects and stories from the museum collection in the exhibition A Home of One’s Own. Together with a guide, the students delve into the rich history of the Hospice Guislain – today the Guislain Psychiatric Hospital. Since 1857, people in need of mental healthcare have been welcomed here. The Ghent doctor Joseph Guislain was one of the very first to regard the mentally ill as patients, deserving of humane treatment. Walk past cabinets filled with medical instruments, monumental ladles, letters and diaries. What do these objects tell us about the history of psychiatry, and what questions do they raise today?

Secondary education

A teacher from the School of Psychiatric Nursing gives a presentation on contemporary psychiatric care.

Discover a wealth of objects and stories from the museum collection in the exhibition A Home of One’s Own. Together with a guide, the students delve into the rich history of the Hospice Guislain – today the Guislain Psychiatric Hospital. Since 1857, people in need of mental healthcare have been welcomed here. The Ghent doctor Joseph Guislain was one of the very first to regard the mentally ill as patients, deserving of humane treatment. Walk past cabinets filled with medical instruments, monumental ladles, letters and diaries. What do these objects tell us about the history of psychiatry, and what questions do they raise today?

Birds, rats, bodies, rooms, scratches, masks; real or not real?

This is the world of Roger Ballen. The Ballenesque theatre performs and the audience joins in on demand. The scenes are confusing, relatable, tangible, absurd, appealing, impossible - yet real.