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PSYCHIATRY AND ART
Psychiatry in the time of National Socialism
Exhibitions and sessions
The period of National Socialism is the darkest chapter in the history of psychiatry
in Germany and thus also in the history of the DGPPN predecessor organisations.
People with physical and mental impairments were systematically persecuted and exter-
minated – in the midst of German society – and psychiatrists were partly responsible.
Registered, persecuted, annihilated: the Sick and
the Disabled under National Socialism
In 2009 the DGPPN acknowledged its special responsi-
bility resulting from the involvement of its predecessor
organisations in the crimes of National Socialism, the
killing of huge numbers of ill people and forced sterili-
sations. It initiated a research project that culminated in
2014 in the German- and English-language travelling exhi-
bition “registered, persecuted, annihilated”. Meanwhile,
more than 300,000 visitors have seen the exhibition
nationally and internationally. The exhibition will be
on display during the World Congress 2017.
The exhibition is specifically aimed at a wide audience.
Using the question of the value of life as a guiding prin-
ciple, it considers the intellectual and institutional pre-
conditions of the killings, summarises the events from
exclusion and forced sterilisations up to the Holocaust,
presents examples of victims, perpetrators, accomplic-
es and opponents and finally looks into how the events
of that period have been dealt with from 1945 until the
present day.
Sunday to Thursday
|
Hall B
As part of the Scientific Visits, you will have the oppor-
tunity to visit sites in Berlin relevant for the history of
psychiatry. Additional information can be found on page
340.
Dorothea Buck – a special destiny
Born in 1917, Dorothea Buck was overcome by a severe
mental crisis at the age of nineteen. During the Third
Reich, she was classified as a minor human being be-
cause of her diagnosis of schizophrenia. In accordance
with the Nazi race policies she was forcibly sterilised
in 1936. A few years later she barely escaped “euthana-
sia”. Contrary to all prognoses – related to her incurable
mental illness – Dorothea Buck tried to understand what
drove her into psychosis and developed her own theory
of her illness. Through this process she found the key to
her own sanity. This development is inseparably linked
with her evolution to an expressive and highly distin-
guished sculptress.
Dorothea Buck's artistic work has gained particular sig-
nificance. Her accentuated lines give rise to impressive
sculptures that appear to evoke what she was denied in
the so-called sanatoriums: human attention and warmth.
The film “The sky and beyond” depicts the life and work
of this extraordinary woman, who is now 100 years old.
Exhibition:
Dorothea Buck
Sunday to Thursday
|
Hall B
Documentary:
The sky and beyond
Mon, 9 Oct 2017
|
15:15– 17:45
|
Hall London 1