[Psychiatry in the GDR as a "niche" - Between adaptation and autonomy].

Background:   With the help of statements from contemporary witnesses, it shall be deduced, if and to what extent Psychiatry was experienced as a shelter for employees and patients in the state controlled society of the GDR and which effort of adaptation to the authoritarian regime was needed to organize protected and protective spaces, here called "niches".

Method:   74 guide-based interviews from subjects including former patients and different staff groups of the East german Psychiatry were analyzed qualitatively.

Results:   Many quotations show, that Psychiatry in the GDR was experienced as a "niche" for dissenting people and could offer a certain amount of protection for patients.

[The Journal "Deine Gesundheit" - A Reflection of Social Psychiatry in the GDR?].

Background: Articles on psychiatric care in the GDR published in the journal "Deine Gesundheit" are identified. This involved examining how psychiatry was presented to the public and the intentions of addressing a lay audience.

Methodology: All booklets published between 1955 and 1989 were systematically reviewed, the role of the publishers examined, and an assessment made in the context of social psychiatry and sociopolitical conditions.

[An Essential Therapeutic: Occupational Therapy in GDR Psychiatric Institutions as Seen by Contemporary Witnesses].

Objective: The aim of this survey of professionals working in the GDR and former patients was to help determine the role and function of occupational therapy in psychiatric institutions.

Methodology: 74 contemporary witnesses were interviewed who had worked professionally in psychiatric institutions in the GDR or had been treated there in adulthood. The interviews were evaluated qualitatively.

[On the way to democracy-The transformation process 1990/1991 and the role of the Association for Psychiatry and Neurology in the GDR].

Objective: The transition from socialist dictatorship to liberal democracy in the GDR was associated with political and social upheaval. The transformation accompanying the democratic sociopolitical process is examined using the example of the Association for Neurology and Psychiatry of the GDR, which led to its unification with the German Association for Psychiatry and Neurology (DGPN).

Method: For the historical investigation material from the archives of the DGPPN as well as the personal belongings of the protagonists of the time were used and eyewitness interviews were conducted.

[History of neurology in the GDR: a systematic review].

Background: Neurology as a discipline developed differently in the two German states after 1945 and little is known about neurology in the GDR.

Objective: This article examines the present state of historical research on neurology in the GDR.

Materials And Methods: We systematically screened the existing literature from the period 1991-2021 and assigned the studies to different categories.

[On "Alienated Consumption" - How a Large Company in the GDR Dealt With Alcohol Abuse].

The paper investigates the treatment of alcohol abuse in the GDR, and specifically in Rostock, and was written using insights from the documentary film Abhängig [Addicted], which was filmed in 1983. This is not a film analysis. Rather, the paper functions as an impetus to examine from a micro-historical perspective the various dimensions of the way in which alcoholism was dealt with in a large GDR enterprise.

[Comparison of Inpatients in Child Psychiatry in Rostock Between 1960 and 2015].

Since its beginnings, child psychiatry has been subject to permanent change due to social changes and thus different expectations of the field, developments in diagnostics, therapy and the respective classification systems. After 1949 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) underwent an independent and somatically oriented development. Although assumed that there was systematic injustice in inpatient facilities of child psychiatry in the GDR, no study from this period has been published to our knowledge up to now.

[Poison in the filter: implementing detoxification procedures in schizophrenia].

In the history of psychiatry a variety of "blood detoxification" procedures have repeatedly been used to treat schizophrenic disorders under the assumption of autointoxication. In the 1970s this led to the use of dialysis. In addition to the historical classification of this therapeutic approach, particularly the protagonists active in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as well as the dimension of research and science policy are highlighted.

[Psychiatry in East Germany (GDR) Between Awakening and Stagnation: The Brandenburg Proposition to the "Therapeutic Community" (1974/76)].

Inspired by the concept of the English psychiatrist Maxwell Jones, the Brandenburg proposition or thesis towards the "Therapeutic Community" was formulated in 1974. Its objective was to transform the therapeutic environment in psychiatric hospitals of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Based on sources from the Federal Archive in Berlin and for the first time from the Historical Archive of the Asklepios Hospital in Brandenburg, the motivation, implementation and effect of the so-called Brandenburg proposition will be analysed within its socio-political context.

The Development of Sayk's Cell Sedimentation Chamber: A Historical View on Clinical Cerebrospinal Fluid Diagnostics.

Objective: The history of Sayk's cell sedimentation chamber is examined and reviewed in the context of clinically utilizable cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytology.

Methods: A review of the literature was undertaken in PubMed and Google Scholar to search for primary and secondary sources on the history of CSF diagnosis. Moreover, documents in the archives of the Universities of Rostock and Jena, the Brain Research Institute of Cécile and Oskar Vogt in Düsseldorf and the Centre for Neurology at Rostock University were used.

[In process.].

Internationally, Helmut RENNERT (1920-1994) was one of the most renowned representatives of psychiatry in the GDR. From 1958 until 1984 he was the chair of the department of psychiatry and neurology at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. He was also the chairman of the Association for Neurology and Psychiatry of the GDR for many years.

Oxytocin promotes facial emotion recognition and amygdala reactivity in adults with asperger syndrome.

The neuropeptide oxytocin has recently been shown to enhance eye gaze and emotion recognition in healthy men. Here, we report a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that examined the neural and behavioral effects of a single dose of intranasal oxytocin on emotion recognition in individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS), a clinical condition characterized by impaired eye gaze and facial emotion recognition. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined whether oxytocin would enhance emotion recognition from facial sections of the eye vs the mouth region and modulate regional activity in brain areas associated with face perception in both adults with AS, and a neurotypical control group.

["No pleasant side can be discovered in this young boy"--aspects of "child euthanasia" in Silesia].

Several thousand children also fell victim to the murder committed on physically or mentally handicapped persons under the term "euthanasia" during Nazi times. While at first they were included in the killings administered under "Action T4", beginning in 1941 the process of selection and murder was relocated to specialized "child departments" developed just for this purpose. Under the auspices of the Reich Committee for the Scientific Registering of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses (Reichsausschuss zur wissenschaftlichen Erfassung erb- und anlagebedingter schwerer Leiden) a network expanded with the objective of screening children and youth that did not seem fit and supportable for society and future generations.

[50 years Rodewisch theses--for the beginnings of social-psychiatric reforms in East Germany (GDR)].

The so-called Rodewisch Theses of 1963 demonstrate East German psychiatry's attempts to implement social-psychiatric reforms. To mark their 50th anniversary, this article analyses their emergence, drafting and implementation. It has been known that key requirements could only be fulfilled on a regional basis, the Leipzig University Department of Psychiatry being an outstanding example, although its staff worked rather autonomously of the Rodewisch Theses.

["Euthanasia" of children in Nazi Germany - the case of Günter Nevermannn. On the responsibility of childhood and adolescent psychiatry in the past, the present, and the future].

«Euthanasia» was the cynical euphemism used by the Nazis to refer to the systematic murder of hundreds of thousands of mentally sick and handicapped people between 1939 and 1945, at least 6,000 of whom were children. Based on the example of Günter Nevermann, this paper provides insight into the complex acts of registering, selecting, and targeting children labelled as "inferior" and "unworthy to live." This case clearly shows that Nazi doctors were not necessarily enmeshed in some tragic conflict.

Effects of intranasal oxytocin on the neural basis of face processing in autism spectrum disorder.

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with altered face processing and decreased activity in brain regions involved in face processing. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to promote face processing and modulate brain activity in healthy adults. The present study examined the effects of oxytocin on the neural basis of face processing in adults with Asperger syndrome (AS).

History of social psychiatry.

Purpose Of Review: The overview focuses on publications relating to the history of social psychiatry and the mental health movement, respectively.

Recent Findings: The selected works show fundamental developments within psychiatry, which can be conceived in the broadest sense as sociomedical in nature. Main emphases are the criticism of large institutions, reform movements and antipsychiatric movements, the search for alternative therapeutic methods, and the question of the resocialization of the mentally ill.

Illnesses of the will in 'pre-psychiatric' times.

Since its emergence as a medical discipline in its own right, i.e. since the end of the eighteenth century, disorders of the will have constituted a major area of interest for psychiatrists.

[Socialistic university policy between demand and reality--the example of Hans Heygster at the Rostock University Hospital of Psychiatry and Neurology].

The extent and boundaries of political influence are a central issue in the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). After 1945 socialist leaders attempted to exert political influence on education in the Soviet occupied zone and the later GDR. The Second University Reform in 1951/52 introduced a fundamental break with established university structures.

Helmut Rennert's universal genesis of endogenous psychoses: the historical concept and its significance for today's discussion on unitary psychosis.

Next to Karl Leonhard (1904-1988), Helmut Rennert (1920-1994) was the internationally best known representative of psychiatry from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). He rose to prominence above all through his model of the universal genesis of endogenous psychoses, which constituted an antithesis to Leonhard's differentiated division. The 'polar opposite' aspects of Rennert and Leonhard are represented with an emphasis on their contrasting views of psychiatric nosology.

[50 years of Child Neuropsychiatry at Rostock University].

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the independent Chair of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry at Rostock University, this study takes a closer look at the circumstances and history of its establishment and development in the GDR. It shows that its development took place within the framework of the general strive for independence of a young discipline in Europe, and the German-speaking countries in particular, after World War II. It also addresses the specific local emergence conditions and the general sociopolitical factors, highlighting the personal, yet very individual, impact of the two protagonists of child and adolescent psychiatry, namely Franz Günther von Stockert (1899-1967) and Gerhard Göllnitz (1920-2003), on the path Rostock child psychiatry followed.