Former Concentration Camp Inmates on a Psychiatric Ward

Abstract

IntroductionIn the course of our clinical work with patients who have undergone traumatic experiences of oppression, we have been impressed by the peculiar patterning of symptoms and complaints which would hardly be understood according to accepted concepts of clinical nosology. Furthermore, discrepancies between the etiological and the dynamic aspects of these patients were observed.Particularly during the period of the Eichmann Trial severe psychological reactions, both in psychiatric patients and in otherwise "healthy" camp survivors who had not, until then, shown major difficulties in adaptation, could be observed. During the period of the trial their psychic equilibrium was disturbed; this became apparent in the form of various emotional reactions, symptoms of anxiety, and reactivation of feelings of oppression, isolation, and helplessness, as felt in the past.During this period the question has been raised why there has been no serious attempt at research in