Polish psychiatry in the wake of social changes.
The aim of this paper is to present some characteristic facts concerning the history of psychiatry in Poland. Those facts have been selected as to illustrate the two obvious but not often expressed theses: 1. the history of psychiatry in Poland has been closely linked with the mainstream of Western thought, social and philosophical ideas of the time; 2. development of psychiatry and psychiatric care depend on the political history of the country. The background factor that greatly influenced that development was the partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia and Austria, which lasted well over one hundred years.
Herczyńska
Grazyna
G
Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland.