Incubation rooms or sleeping rooms are a very typical feature of the Asclepieion of Pergamon, near modern day Bergama. They were used for psychological therapy.
Treatment was holistic, addressing mind and body alike. The incubation ritual invited patients to sleep within the abaton1.
Patients’ dreams were interpreted by the Asklepiads to reveal the god’s prescription, an ante-litteram form of psychotherapy or an early suggestive therapy.
- Photos by Efe Erhan Küsmez (August 2025)
- Locate the item on this Google Map
Sources
– On-site information panels and museum information displays at the archeological site and Archeological Museum of Bergama.
– Relevant online source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy about Claudius Galen