title: [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.
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Noack
mesh_terms: D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000266:history; D005860:Germany, West; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*