[Psychiatrists criticising psychiatry: the asylum director Gustav Kolb (1870-1938) and his struggle for social reforms and professional aims].

Abstract

Against a background of public criticism of institutional psychiatry, which had been growing since around 1900, the director of the institute in Erlangen, Gustav Kolb, devised and set up what was known as "open care", with the intention of reforming clinical psychiatric care. This led to the creation of a new type of outpatient care clinic, which became a defining characteristic of public mental health care during the time of the Weimar Republic. A closer examination of it as a concept and in practice shows, however, that Kolb was primarily pursuing aims related to the politics of the profession, for with "open care", he considerably extended the area of competence of institutional psychiatry. He also sought to improve the professional situation of institutional psychiatrists, which was constantly being complained about by members of the profession at the time, by creating the position of "care doctor" and with it a new career perspective for doctors at institutions. Kolb's model of "open care" can thus be interpreted as being the professionalisation strategy of a member of the psychiatric profession during the Weimar Republic.