title: Personal suffering and social criticism in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and A. Ginsberg's Howl: Implications for social psychiatry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and A. Ginsberg's Howl are two landmark poems of the 20th century which have a unique way of dealing with emotional suffering.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  (a) To explore the interplay between emotional suffering, conflicting relationships and societal perceptions; (b) to show the therapeutic effect of the writing process; (c) to analyse the portrayal of 'madness'; and (d) to discuss, in contemporary psychiatric terms, the 'solutions' offered by the poets.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative research with a narrative, hermeneutic approach.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Against the background of wartime/genocide and postwar disillusionment, close relationships are projected onto societal perceptions. Concepts of (self-)control, compassion, empowerment and self-efficacy are offered as solutions to overcome feelings of despair.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In a time of perceived societal and environmental crises, both poems help us understand people's fears and how to counteract them. Besides biological approaches, the narrative approach to the suffering human being has not lost its significance.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Ulm University, BKH Günzburg, Günzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Moritz E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Wigand
authors.affiliation: 2 Epilepsy Centre Berlin-Brandenburg, Epilepsieklinik Tabor, Bernau, Germany.
authors.forename: Hauke F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Wiegand
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Ulm University, BKH Günzburg, Günzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rüsch
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II, Ulm University, BKH Günzburg, Günzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Becker
keywords: Modernity; close relationships; crisis; lobotomy; narratives; social criticism; therapeutic writing