RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: In 1966 the Leipzig neuropsychiatrist and psychotherapist Christa Kohler qualified as a university lecturer on social-psychiatric problems in patients aged 40 + suffering from psychoses and neuroses. This paper acknowledges this habilitation thesis in its historical context as an early contribution to East German social psychiatry. METHODS: First the thesis itself is searched for points characteristic of Kohler's approach to social psychiatry. Parallel to that, her views are contextualised with other primary sources from or secondary sources about GDR psychiatry at that time. Finally archival sources and oral testimonies of eye witnesses have been considered to substantialise the study. RESULTS: The habilitation thesis is based on data from several hundreds of patients with regard to their demographic, medical and sociological features. Her approach to how older patients suffering from mental illnesses should be treated and rehabilitated is still highly relevant. Yet one must critically assess that many of Kohler's results as well as her psychotherapeutic treatment were ideology-based or oriented on the GDR system. CONCLUSIONS: Kohler's approach shows a clear, yet improper amalgamation of medical science and political ideology. Future research must show in how far this is typical for her concept only or for the whole of GDR social psychiatry.
