[The standard textbook on racial hygiene by Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer, and Fritz Lenz as viewed by the psychiatric and neurological communities from 1921 to 1940]

[German neurology and neurologists during the Third Reich: exemplified by research on epilepsy]

There are only a small number of studies dealing with the impact of eugenic theories and practices on the research of particular neurological diseases during the Third Reich. Thus, this contribution to the special issue on neurology in Germany between 1933 and 1945 focuses exemplarily on epilepsy research. By drawing on primary sources and secondary literature the article tries to reconstruct the scientific discourse of the time and consider the implications for patients. National socialistic ideology was based on eugenic thinking and the implementation of eugenic policies was a major political objective. An immediate effect of this policy was the passing of the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses) in 1933. According to this law "hereditary epilepsy" along with various other neurological and psychiatric disorders was regarded as a mandatory indication for forced sterilization. Subsequently, funding of epileptological research was generously increased and extended, e. g. at the German Research Institute (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt) in Munich and the Rheinische Provinzial-Institut in Bonn. The main focus was placed on idiopathic forms of the disease, which were a priori considered as hereditary. At the annual meetings of the Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists (Gesellschaft deutscher Neurologen und Psychiater), lectures and debates on epilepsy repeatedly constituted a key topic. Some participants opted for a broad interpretation of "endogeneity" and thus favored an extension of the practice of sterilization but others advocated a more differentiated and restricted attitude. Several neurology researchers showed a penchant for self-mobilization in line with the doctrine of the new government.

Psychiatry in the Nazi era

OBJECTIVES

To update Canadian psychiatrists on recent information from newly discovered Berlin archives about the actions of physicians, especially psychiatrists, during the era of National Socialism in Germany and to encourage introspection about the role of the medical profession, its relationship with government, and its vulnerability to manipulation by ideology and economic pressures.

METHOD

This is a selective review of the literature on the collaboration of physicians, especially psychiatrists, in the sterilization, experimentation, and annihilation of patients with mental illness before and during World War II.

RESULTS

Directed to value the health of the nation over the care of individual patients and convinced that a hierarchy of worth distinguished one person from another, German psychiatrists were enlisted to commit atrocities during the Nazi period.

CONCLUSIONS

The values of care and compassion can be eroded; this knowledge demands constant vigilance.

From degeneration to genetic susceptibility, from eugenics to genethics, from Bezugsziffer to LOD score: the history of psychiatric genetics

Reviewing the history of psychiatric genetics is a difficult task, since--in contrast to genetic research into most other disorders--it cannot simply be done by chronologically listing methodological achievements and major findings. Instead, it necessitates a comprehensive assessment of how the aetiological concept of mental disorders has developed since as early as the world of ancient Greece. Furthermore, it has to touch upon the sensitive issue of the eugenic movement that was closely linked to the study of heredity in mental disorders in the first half of the 20th century and, in Nazi Germany, led to the systematic mass murder of psychiatric patients. Finally, reviewing the scientific dimensions, history of psychiatric genetics is at the same time a walk through the history of complex genetics in general. In our review, we try to pay tribute to this complexity. We argue that psychiatric genetics has not only propelled our understanding of mental disorders but has significantly benefited genetic research into other complex disorders through the development of methodologically robust approaches (e.g., systematic phenotype characterisation, methods to control for ascertainment biases, age-correction). Given the recent reasons for new optimism, i.e., the identification of susceptibility genes for psychiatric phenotypes, a continued methodologically sound approach is needed more than ever to guarantee robust results. Finally, psychiatric genetic research should never again be performed in an environment void of ethical standards.