Citation

Söhner F, Baader G. Psychiatr. Q. 2018; 89(2): 475-487.

Affiliation

Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Klingsorstr. 119, 12203, Berlin, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11126-017-9549-0

PMID

29159768

Abstract

Health damages and the late effects of NS trauma were largely ignored in German-speaking countries. This paper describes how dealing with the late effects of Nazi terror influenced post-war psychiatry in West Germany and thus the development of the psychiatric reform. As part of a greater overview study of the impulses and framework conditions of the reform-orientated development of post-war psychiatry in West Germany, this analysis is based on a thorough literary and documentary analysis. The sources show that publications by Helmut Paul and Herberg [81] as well as Baeyer et al. [12] can be considered as remarkable milestones. The awareness of psychological late effects of NS persecution was only reluctantly taken up by the scientific community. Nevertheless, this discussion was an essential component of the reform-orientated psychiatry in West Germany in the late 1960s to 1970s.

Language: en

Keywords

Concentration camp; Expert opinion; Late effects; Posttraumatic stress disorder; Traumatic neurosis