Der Schriftsteller Rudolf Ditzen [Hans Fallada] (1893 – 1947) als Morphinist in der Provinzial-Heilanstalt Stralsund 1921

Abstract

The work presented here analyses the in-patient psychiatric treatment, which remained unconsidered in the relevant biographies, of Rudolf Ditzen in the Stralsund Provincial Sanatorium from 5 January to 14 February 1921 with the diagnoses of "morphine addiction" and "degenerative psychopathic constitution". For this purpose the medical report on Ditzen, which has come to light again, was evaluated, and the treatment classified in its medical-historical context and the making of the diagnosis discussed against the background of Ditzen's psychosocial development. In the case of a combination of diagnoses typical for the time, against the background of Ditzen's difficult psychosocial development, which was likewise typical for its time, the result was a not entirely typical treatment for addiction under the custodial conditions of institutional psychiatry around 1920. Ditzen's hospitalisation with a comparatively mild type of symptoms is to be viewed against the background of a lack of extramural treatment structures. It is not certain whether Ditzen deliberately used the hospital as a space for withdrawal and protection.