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Background Consent to treatment is a cornerstone of medical ethics and law. Nevertheless, very little empirical evidence is available to inform clinicians and policymakers regarding the capacities of forensic patients with schizophrenia... more
Background Consent to treatment is a cornerstone of medical ethics and law. Nevertheless, very little empirical evidence is available to inform clinicians and policymakers regarding the capacities of forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) to make decisions about their treatment, with the risk of clinical and legal inertia, silent coercion, stigmatization, or ill-conceived reforms. Study Design In this multinational study, we assessed and compared with treatment-related decisional capacities in forensic and non-forensic patients with SSD. 160 forensic and 139 non-forensic patients were used in Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland, and England. Their capacity to consent to treatment was assessed by means of the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT-T). Multiple generalized linear regression models were used to identify the socio-demographic and clinical variables associated with MacCAT-T scores. Study Results In total, 55 forensic (34.4%) and 58...
In 1927, the German popular science magazine Die Koralle published an article entitled "The Library of Brains." The article was about the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin, established in 1914 as the... more
In 1927, the German popular science magazine Die Koralle published an article entitled "The Library of Brains." The article was about the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin, established in 1914 as the continuation of the "Neurological Central Station" founded by Oskar Vogt (1870-1959) in 1898. The library metaphor plays on the huge collection of human and animal brains Oskar and his wife Cécile (1875-1862) had gathered over several decades. For examination, the brains were cut into paper-thin slices and embedded in paraffin: from one single organ, up to 30,000 slices could be extracted, which were to be "read" and studied like the pages of a book. In this chapter, we take the metaphor at face value, arguing that Vogt's institute actually functioned as a library. Numerous publications have emphasized the role of the Vogts and, in particular, of the brain collection for the constitution of modern neuroscience. The "library," however, has never been closely investigated. How was it designed? How was it filled? According to which criteria were the brains collected and ordered? How did the order and the collection itself reflect the Vogts' research program? Through a detailed investigation of the collection and the Vogt Archive, we will examine this "library" and reconstruct the order of the Vogt brains. The mutual relationship between collecting, sorting, examining and publishing about the brain will be discussed.
This chapter explores Franco Basaglia’s relation with German psychiatry, from his early infatuation with the anthropo-phenomenological tradition to the disputes with the social psychiatric movement during the 1960s and 1970s. After an... more
This chapter explores Franco Basaglia’s relation with German psychiatry, from his early infatuation with the anthropo-phenomenological tradition to the disputes with the social psychiatric movement during the 1960s and 1970s. After an overview of Basaglia’s criticism of German psychiatric schools and institutions, the chapter focuses on his personal links, most notably with progressive psychiatrists and with the anti-psychiatric movement SPK (Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv). Finally, it analyses Basaglia’s reception, by both the medical establishment and the actors of psychiatric reform. Contrary to the current narrative of a mutual influence, the chapter argues that Basaglia can hardly be regarded as a genuine inspiration for German psychiatric reform, and was retrospectively refashioned as such.
Between 1950 and 1960, Karl Jaspers was nominated five times for a Nobel Prize: twice for Physiology or Medicine, and three times for Literature. The nominations and their evaluation by the Nobel Committees are the focus of this paper.... more
Between 1950 and 1960, Karl Jaspers was nominated five times for a Nobel Prize: twice for Physiology or Medicine, and three times for Literature. The nominations and their evaluation by the Nobel Committees are the focus of this paper. Here they are approached as representations (in the double sense of perception and staging) of Jaspers as a contemporary.
Le présent numéro a l’ambition d’explorer de manière systématique l’histoire franco-allemande de la psychiatrie, en soulignant que les traditions nationales partagent une histoire commune. Il favorise l’histoire du dialogue... more
Le présent numéro a l’ambition d’explorer de manière systématique l’histoire franco-allemande de la psychiatrie, en soulignant que les traditions nationales partagent une histoire commune. Il favorise l’histoire du dialogue franco-allemand dans le champ de la santé mentale, en soumettant à la réflexion de véritables cas d’étude : la psychiatrie militaire durant la Première Guerre mondiale, la psychiatrie strasbourgeoise sous l’administration allemande, l’émergence de catégories nosographiques (la paranoïa, le trouble post-traumatique), la question du placement familial, le parcours intellectuel de Jean Oury, la réception française du test de Rorschach et de la psychopathologie phénoménologique germanophone à partir des années 1920, aussi bien que le débat autour du domaine de la psychiatrie sociale. Les contributions interrogent non seulement les divers contextes culturels de ces échanges, les enjeux intellectuels et les matériaux qui, de manière parfois contingente, en ont déterminé l’histoire, mais aussi les sources et les fondements plus spécifiquement théoriques qui ont rendu possible, sur le terrain de la psychiatrie, le transfert de méthodes, de pratiques et aussi de techniques aux XIXe et XXe siècles entre la France et l’Allemagne. Exploration de la manière dont les idées circulent et sont réappropriées entre ces frontières à partir de la rencontre de figures intellectuelles, d’emprunts d’une science à une autre, des controverses qu’ils suscitent : ce dossier reflète finalement ce mouvement des acteurs, débats et savoirs d’un pays à l’autre, en se concentrant sur les conséquences de ces croisements et les éléments d’originalité qui en ressortent. Le dossier est complété par la publication de la correspondance inédite entre Gaston Bachelard et Ludwig Binswanger (1948-1955).
In 1927, the German popular science magazine Die Koralle published an article entitled "The Library of Brains." The article was about the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin, established in 1914 as the continuation of... more
In 1927, the German popular science magazine Die Koralle published an article entitled "The Library of Brains." The article was about the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin, established in 1914 as the continuation of the "Neurological Central Station" founded by Oskar Vogt (1870-1959) in 1898. The library metaphor plays on the huge collection of human and animal brains Oskar and his wife C ecile (1875-1862) had gathered over several decades. For examination, the brains were cut into paper-thin slices and embedded in paraffin: from one single organ, up to 30,000 slices could be extracted, which were to be "read" and studied like the pages of a book. In this chapter, we take the metaphor at face value, arguing that Vogt's institute actually functioned as a library. Numerous publications have emphasized the role of the Vogts and, in particular, of the brain collection for the constitution of modern neuroscience. The "library," however, has never been closely investigated. How was it designed? How was it filled? According to which criteria were the brains collected and ordered? How did the order and the collection itself reflect the Vogts' research program? Through a detailed investigation of the collection and the Vogt Archive, we will examine this "library" and reconstruct the order of the Vogt brains. The mutual relationship between collecting, sorting, examining and publishing about the brain will be discussed.

Keywords Oskar Vogt, C ecile Vogt, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research, Brain collections, Brain slices, Serial sectioning, History of neuroanatomy, History of microtomy, Brain-reading metaphor
Research Interests:
It looks very much like philosophy is going to save psychiatry or at least to rescue it from the quick sands of biological reductionism, in which it has been muddling for decades. Through a series of historical cases this paper aims at... more
It looks very much like philosophy is going to save psychiatry or at least to rescue it from the quick sands of biological reductionism, in which it has been muddling for decades. Through a series of historical cases this paper aims at showing that this situation is not new and that it would be naïve to take the salvific value of philosophy for granted.
This chapter explores Franco Basaglia’s relation with German psychiatry, from his early infatuation with the anthropo-phenomenological tradition to the disputes with the social psychiatric movement during the 1960s and 1970s. After an... more
This chapter explores Franco Basaglia’s relation with German psychiatry, from his early infatuation with the anthropo-phenomenological tradition to the disputes with the social psychiatric movement during the 1960s and 1970s. After an overview of Basaglia’s criticism of German psychiatric schools and institutions, the chapter focuses on his personal links, most notably with progressive psychiatrists and with the anti-psychiatric movement SPK (Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv). Finally, it analyses Basaglia’s reception, by both the medical establishment and the actors of psychiatric reform. Contrary to the current narrative of a mutual influence, the chapter argues that Basaglia can hardly be regarded as a genuine inspiration for German psychiatric reform, and was retrospectively refashioned as such.
Guest-edited special section with papers from a conference I organized at UCL in January 2013.
Research Interests: