Originalbeiträge (Originals). Psychische und psychosomatische Langzeitfolgen von politischen Traumatisierungen durch die DDR-Diktatur: Eine Bilanz aus Klinik und Forschung / Psychic and psychosomatic longterm sequelae due to political traumatization by GDR-dictatorship: An overview.

Abstract

Psychic and psychosomatic longterm sequelae due to political traumatization by GDRdictatorship: An overview Objectives: The subject of this paper is the long-term health effects of political trauma caused by tyranny in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) between 1945 and 1990.

Methods: The starting points are the clinical experiences of the first author as founder and representative of the psychosomatic chair at the University Hospital Magdeburg from 1996 to 2021, the reference regarding central findings of the state of art in research, and a look at parts of the preliminary results of the research network "Long-term health consequences of SED injustice" funded by the Federal Government.

Results: The long-term consequences that currently persist to a considerable extent are not limited to effects of imprisonment, but also include a number of other forms of experience of repression and consist not only in the shape of post-traumatic stress disorders, but usually in a much more complex network of psychological, psychosomatic and somatic illnesses.

Conclusions: The reappraisal of these damages in criminal law, health care and social law has just as serious shortcomings as the suppression of this part of German history in public discourse.