Flucht als Problem und Chance in der Wiener Nachkriegspsychiatrie

Abstract

viduellen psychischen Störungen engführten, platzierten sie ihr medizinisches Wissen im Kontext des Kalten Krieges.In our paper we focus on psychiatric knowledge on the psychic consequences of flight between 1945 and 1960. By analysing patient records from the university clinic for psychiatry and neurologyi nV ienna from 1945 to 1948 and the medical discourseand publications until1960 we wanttoargue that the psychiatric discourseand the clinical practice were closely framed by political circumstances. While shortly after 1945 the groupofthe so-called »Volksdeutsche«, who were often considered as Nazi collaborators, were neglected as victims,the exact opposite was the case with Hungarians whofled to Austria after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.This change of view was accompanied by achange in the psychiatric discoursei nV iennathat was influenced by new movements such as the social-psychiatrya nd the mental hygiene movementi nS witzerlandt hat favoured psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytical concepts. When during the Hungarian Revolutiona greatnumberofrefugees entered and stayed in Austria, Vienna psychiatrists established psychotherapeutic helpprogrammes for refugees for the first time. We discuss this initiativea lso as as trategyb ys ome psychiatrists to introduce new concepts likes ocialpsychiatryand new institutions in Vienna psychiatryand, at the same time, to further their careers and research. Finally,byanalysing the case of the aid programme for Hungarian minors we showthat Vienna psychiatrists placed theirknowledge within the context of the Cold War.