[So-called "difficult children" urgently needed their own medical association: the history of the introduction of the specialist title of "child and youth psychiatry" in Germany in 1968].

So-called "difficult children" urgently needed their own medical association: the history of the introduction of the specialist title of "child and youth psychiatry" in Germany in 1968 In post-war Germany, child psychiatry (CP) was not an independent discipline but part of adult psychiatry/neurology. The primary goal of adult psychiatrists of the day was to maintain power in all areas dealing with nervous diseases and their treatment. Interest in smaller specialties such as CP remained secondary, leaving only the option of an additional qualification. Switzerland, on the other hand, had already early on introduced a separate CP specialization. In many other industrialized nations, CP was expanding to deal better with the difficulties posed by "difficult children" and their sequelae. Because of "cleansing" and the enforced synchronization of social and health care systems during the Nazi regime as well as the effects of the war, the development of CP in West Germany was subject to exceptional conditions. Specialists for this important "social task" were missing. Only after adult psychiatrists had accepted the separation of the disciplines of neurology and psychiatry did the specialist in "Child and Youth Psychiatry" emerge and receive the approval of the Medical Assembly in 1968.