How to cure the war? The development of psychiatric knowledge and its impact on the construction of social norms in Europe between 1945 and 1968

How to cure the war? The development of psychiatric knowledge and its impact on the construction of social norms in Europe between 1945 and 1968

This research project deals with the development of psychiatric knowledge and its impact on constructing social norms in post-war Europe between 1945 and 1968. This project aims to examine how the concept of “mental health” was defined in psychiatric knowledge and to what extent this knowledge influenced the criminal justice systems in post-war Europe. The research project is divided into three parts: (1a) an analysis of expert discussions at international conferences organized by the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) or the World Health Organization (WHO), and (1b) the study of psychiatric textbooks and academic journals; (2) an analysis of psychiatric expert testimonies in criminal proceedings in London, Duesseldorf and Prague; (3) a study of the media coverage of selected criminal cases in West-Germany, the UK and Czechoslovakia.