The treatment of alcoholism that should not exist: Addiction, East German doctors, and Western methods in the German Democratic Republic.

IF 1.1 2区 哲学 Q4 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
Medical History Pub Date : 2025-08-29 DOI:10.1017/mdh.2025.9
Markus Wahl
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Abstract

Addiction was considered 'alien to Socialism'. At least, that was the narrative upheld by the socialist East German state, which thus followed the traditional argumentation of socialist and social democratic movements since the turn of the century. While the state clung to this ideological claim, the consumption and abuse of beer, spirits, and benzodiazepines continued to increase. However, there was never a central strategy for the treatment and prevention of addiction in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The hesitation and ignorance of the state authorities created a vacuum that was filled by local initiatives and expert discussions aimed at improving the situation of people with addictions. In this article, I analyse the introduction of new treatment methods in a psychiatric hospital in the GDR and show that doctors, psychologists, patients, and local officials had certain freedoms to test new approaches, many of which originated in the West. Even though they had to adapt concepts such as the 'therapeutic communities' of British reformer Maxwell Jones to the specific socialist and East German context to avoid restrictions by state authorities, the Berlin Wall did not prevent the transfer of knowledge. This article, therefore, paints a nuanced picture of the therapeutic methods used to treat people with addiction in the GDR. From condemning individuals as outcasts of socialist society for socially deviant drinking behaviour and relying exclusively on aversion therapy and moral accusations, there was a shift towards a mixture of treatments that became increasingly specialised and individualised, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, comparable to Western standards.

不应该存在的酒精中毒治疗:成瘾,东德医生,以及德意志民主共和国的西方方法。
上瘾被认为是“与社会主义格格不入”。至少,这是社会主义东德政府所坚持的说法,因此,自世纪之交以来,它遵循了社会主义和社会民主主义运动的传统论点。在政府坚持这种意识形态主张的同时,啤酒、烈酒和苯二氮卓类药物的消费和滥用继续增加。然而,德意志民主共和国(民主共和国)从未制定过治疗和预防成瘾的中心战略。国家当局的犹豫和无知造成了一个真空,由旨在改善吸毒成瘾者状况的地方倡议和专家讨论填补。在本文中,我分析了德意志民主共和国一家精神病医院引进新治疗方法的情况,并表明医生、心理学家、患者和地方官员有一定的自由来测试新方法,其中许多方法起源于西方。尽管他们不得不将英国改革家麦克斯韦·琼斯(Maxwell Jones)的“治疗社区”(therapeutic communities)等概念适应社会主义和东德的具体背景,以避免国家当局的限制,但柏林墙并没有阻止知识的转移。因此,本文描绘了德意志民主共和国用于治疗成瘾者的治疗方法的微妙图景。从谴责那些有不正常饮酒行为的人是社会主义社会的弃者,到完全依赖厌恶疗法和道德指责,人们转向了越来越专业化和个性化的混合治疗,尤其是在20世纪70年代和80年代,与西方标准相当。
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来源期刊
Medical History
Medical History 医学-科学史与科学哲学
CiteScore
1.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
25
审稿时长
>12 weeks
期刊介绍: Medical History is a refereed journal devoted to all aspects of the history of medicine and health, with the goal of broadening and deepening the understanding of the field, in the widest sense, by historical studies of the highest quality. It is also the journal of the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health. The membership of the Editorial Board, which includes senior members of the EAHMH, reflects the commitment to the finest international standards in refereeing of submitted papers and the reviewing of books. The journal publishes in English, but welcomes submissions from scholars for whom English is not a first language; language and copy-editing assistance will be provided wherever possible.
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