Shock Therapies as Intensification of the War against Madness in Hamburg, Germany: 1930–1943

Abstract

German psychiatric practice between 1930 and 1945 was characterizedby the interplay of different technologies that aimed to influence the conduct ofthe patient. Nurses, as the delegated representatives of the psychiatrists’ power,were strategically positioned to influence patient behaviour using a broad rangeof disciplinary measures. An in-depth qualitative analysis of a medical recordfrom a Hamburg asylum highlights the different shock treatments used on thepatient, demonstrating that they were used randomly and primarily as a meansof discipline for “bad” behaviour, sometimes leading to patient deaths. The articleconnects the results of the analysis with the international discussions amongpsychiatrists on how shock therapies were presumed to operate.