[On rabbits and snakes: psychiatry and the public in the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany].

Abstract

In the early 1950s psychiatry in West-Germany was criticized by the public for a short period. The so-called "crisis of psychiatry" concerned two subjects, the professionals' behaviour towards the patients and the legal procedure of hospitalisation. The most important events were the Hollywood-film The Snake Pit, several reports about asylums in the media and especially the trial against Martin-Heinrich Corten. The debates and the solutions developed at that time focused on legal aspects; the deeper reasons for the bad state of the asylums were not discussed. Besides psychiatrists refused the criticism, so that the "crisis of psychiatry" did not induce any structural changes.