Maltreatment of People With Serious Mental Illness in the Early 20th Century

Abstract

Prejudice and stigma against people with mental illness can be seen throughout history. The worst instance of this prejudice was connected to the rise of the eugenics movement in the early 20th century. Although the Nazi German T-4 program of killing people with mental illness was the most egregious culmination of this philosophy, the United States has its own dark eugenics history-nearing a slippery slope all too similar to that of the Nazis. Mental health care clinicians need to examine this period to honor the memory of the victims of eugenics and to guarantee that nothing like this will ever happen again.

Kallmann Syndrome: Eugenics and the Man behind the Eponym

“… 6 In an article published in 1903, “Alcohol in the Life Process of the Race,” Rudin wrote (translated by Weber) 7 that to obtain “biologically fit members of the race” it was necessary not only to have “maximum propagation of those who are healthy, robust and … ethically superior” but also to exclude “the weak, ill, unfit and morally reprehensible from reproduction by artificial selection, … by instruction and by private and government force.” In 1916, Rudin published his pivotal study on 701 families in which he sought to demonstrate the heritable characteristics of schizophrenia. 7 , 8 Rudin was appointed president of the International Federation of Eugenics Organizations in 1932 and, from 1935 to 1945, served as president of the Association of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists. 7 Franz Kallmann joined Rudin when he was the director of the Genealogical-Demographic Department at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Munich.…”

How Ethics Failed — The Role of Psychiatrists and Physicians in Nazi Programs from Exclusion to Extermination, 1933–1945

“…[2][3][4][5] There can be no doubt about the role played by the medical profession in the planning and execution of the eugenics programs in Germany, and that opportunities for professional advancement played a major role in their participation. A body of scholarly work has been published about the complicity of physicians during the Nazi era, [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] but the specific roles played by physicians and medical institutions during this period still demand in-depth investigation. 10,14 In contrast, the criminal role of many physicians and health scientists was mixed with other work in epidemiology, public health, preventive medicine, public health policy, screening, and occupational health law throughout the Nazi era.…”

“…A body of scholarly work has been published about the complicity of physicians during the Nazi era, [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] but the specific roles played by physicians and medical institutions during this period still demand in-depth investigation. 10,14 In contrast, the criminal role of many physicians and health scientists was mixed with other work in epidemiology, public health, preventive medicine, public health policy, screening, and occupational health law throughout the Nazi era. 15,16 While Nazi Germany was rampaging throughout Europe perpetrating mass slaughter, some health professionals were working on innovative health and prevention interventions promoting life.…”

Drawing the Line: Disability, Genetic Intervention and Bioethics

“…As already noted, classical eugenics was concerned with selecting certain people through forced sterilisation, restrictive reproduction laws and secret killings (Fischer 2012(Fischer , p. 1097. The growing concern is that a neo-eugenics movement may be instead focused on the selection of certain genes (King 2001, pp.…”