Villa san michele axel munthe biography

Axel Munthe received a degree in medicine and philosophy from Uppsala University in 1876. He was then 19 years old. After graduating he travelled south because of his poor health – he is believed to have had tuberculosis (or consumption as it was then called), which would bother him for a long time – and visited Capri for the first time.

Afterwards he studied with the then well-known gynaecologist Amadée Courty in Montpellier, France, and received his doctorate in medicine in 1880 in Paris with a dissertation about uterine bleeding during birth.

Dr Axel Munthe’s defence of his dissertation was controversial.

Villa san michele axel munthe biography wikipedia

The period for opposition was extended due to his arrogant behaviour and because many of his sources were German, which irritated the French authorities. Munthe was thus initially a gynaecologist but worked as a general practitioner throughout his professional life.

Later on, an interest in psychological problems came to dominate.

Friend of the poor

Munthe worked as a vol