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U H Peters

Publications and source records attributed to U H Peters.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

[Diagnostic images, phenomena and criteria in psychiatry--a comparative study].

In the course of a long-term historical development, two different systems of reference evolved in German and Anglo-American psychiatry. Which now confront each other, obviously without actually mixing. Based on classical German philosophy, in Germany the ideas of clinical vignette (Krankheitsbild) and phenomenon-symptom (Phänomen) were on developed. Based on classical English philosophy, English and American psychiatry for long periods were just interested in the best possible humane care for the mentally ill, but not in diagnosing clinical entities or in diagnostic classification. During the two last decades, a first comprehensive classification system, based on the redefinition of criteria by contemporary American philosophy, has been developed. In a short time this system has gained international significance. Both reference systems are outlined in respect of their historical development and differences to make these differences apprehensible by the reader. Unreflected differences result in problems of understanding.

Cross-Cultural Comparison↗
PubMed1992

[Introduction of shock therapy and psychiatric emigration].

The introduction and general acceptance of shock treatment was intimately connected with the emigration of psychiatrists from the German speaking countries in 1933-1938. In 1934 Manfred Sakel began in Vienna, possibly already in 1933 in Berlin, with insulin shock treatment, and later emigrated to the US. From 1936 Max Müller in Münsingen, Switzerland, practised and propagated the same treatment. Many psychiatric emigrants, on their way to their new countries, visited Münsingen to learn the methods and take them to their future countries of residence (e.g. Lucie Jessner, Gertrude May-Gross, Martin Gross, Ruth Wilmanns, Arthur Kronfeld, Justin Hans Adler and Jacob Peter Frostig). In 1934 Ladislas von Meduna, who emigrated to Chicago in 1939, using campher and Cardiazol also introduced the convulsion treatment. After Cerletti and Bini in Rome had changed the method of provoking convulsions by using electric current, other psychiatric emigrants (Lothar Kalinowsky, Fritz Kant, William Karlinger, Lilly Ottenheimer, Max Rinkel, among others) introduced this method to many countries. In addition, Wagner-Jauregg's best known collaborators for the well-introduced malaria therapy, also had to emigrate. Among these are Helene Deutsch, Josef Gerstmann, Bernhard Dattner and Martha Brünner-Ornstein. The review of life and work of the psychiatrists concerned, before and after emigration, has been complemented by unpublished material.

Convulsive Therapy↗
PubMed1991

[The Stasi persecution syndrome].

For many years western psychiatrists only out of their clinical experience have known about a syndrome for which the name Stasi-persecution-syndrome will be used here. Stasi was the all powerful secret police of what was the East German Democratic Republic. The syndrome concerns an hitherto unknown number of the aprox. 50,000 survivors. It is a sequel of a form of persecution now more generally named torture. The characteristics of the persecution include arrestion, interrogations, degradation, humiliation, maltreatment, assault, mass detention in tiny rooms, hunger, cold, discrimination, defamation, disgrace, outlaw, social degradation, absence of rights, uncertainty of future, life threatening, and stigmatizing. The sequels resemble in many aspects of what is known by the psychiatry of the persecuted, but own a special flavor. Among the sequels are persisting and paranoid anxieties, re-arousable by specific situations. There are also realistic anxiety and persecution dreams, mood disturbances, lack of confidence, attempted suicide and complaints about lack of understanding by others, which the victims suffer from. Questions of indemnification for psychiatric sequelae have entered into a new stage after the East-German parliament had passed a rehabilitation bill and because of corresponding declarations in the unification treaty. Psychiatrists should fight for treatment costs and appropriate compensation for physical and psychiatric sequels of Stasi persecution to be set into reality as soon as possible. There is urgent need for a not yet existing scientific literature and publications of clinical experiences.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed1990

[Adolf Meyer and relations between German and American psychiatry].

German psychiatrists do not have an easy access to Adolf Meyer. The reasons include: his influence on American psychiatry was mainly exercised by his personal influence; he did not have the gift of writing his important and influential ideas in a clear language; these ideas, furthermore, were scattered over great number of papers in a variety of periodicals; there is only one unsatisfactory (from the point of view of edition) collection of Meyers papers; no textbook of Meyerian psychiatry exists. There seems to be no German translation of any of Meyers papers. Meyer, who was always in close contact with German psychiatry and psychiatrists, transmitted their ideas to the American scientific public, although in a critical vein. His own psycho-biological or genetico-psychodynamic theory pointed to the importance of the biological and personality structure and its reactions, of how the patient reacts to which live events and which illness in his or her body contrasts to Kraepelins concept of self-sufficiency of the endogenous psychoses. Whereas DSM I und II had been moulded in Meyers spirit, DSM III led far away from it.

Biological Psychiatry↗
PubMed1990

[The Hinckley case and some sequelae for psychiatry].

After John Warnock Hinckley jr. had fired shots at President Reagan and had severely injured three others, he was considered not guilty by reason of insanity and brought to a psychiatric hospital. The case caused an unprecedented public interest because the psychiatric testimonies were contradictory (schizophrenia vs. personality disorder). According to the known facts it is very unlikely that a German psychiatrist would have diagnosed Hinckley as schizophrenic. One of the sequels of the sentence was a lowering of the reputation of psychiatrists for their inability to arrive at clear diagnosis. Another sequel was to increase the funds for research in biological psychiatry. Still another sequel was an insanity defense reform bill. The scientific debate and public discussions continue.

Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders↗
PubMed1990

[Endogenous and symptomatic schizophrenia. Wherein lies the difference?].

It is the opinion of the present writer that endogenous and symptomatic schizophrenia are two completely different matters. By classical symptomatology it is impossible to establish the distinction in every individual case. Nevertheless, in not one of the published cases known to us did Bonhoeffer err in his diagnosis of the one or the other. Evidently he made use of additional characteristica gathered in practice, about which he himself may not always have been quite clear.

Diagnosis, Differential↗
PubMed1990

[The symptomatic psychosis of Friedrich Nietzsche, made evident by his last attempt at an autobiography].

Nietzsche's autobiography gestates neither conflicts, nor life problems, nor matter suppressed from his subconscious, nor are the speech distortions of the schizophrenic patient to be found. In all, analysis allows with certainty the conclusion that is was written by a sick person suffering from a psycho-organic disorder of the kind Bonhoeffer referred to by the general term "symptomatic psychosis".

Famous Persons↗
PubMed1989

[Psychological sequelae of persecution. The survivor syndrome].

In the present decennium, the fifth after the end of the Nazi holocaust, the psychological sequelae in the survivors are far from being overcome, and this chapter of psychiatry is not yet closed. The clinical symptomatology of the survivor's syndrome had only gradually been described during a period of about 20 postwar years. Among the particularities of what survivors experienced were their being outlawed, discrimination, defamation, total absence of rights, loss of individuality, life threatening over a long period, being uprooted, the fact of little number of survivors in one's family and elsewhere, lack of grave for the victims, loss of language, culture and home and many others. Characteristics of the survivor's syndrome are continuing anxiety of being persecuted, struggle against memory, tension feeling, rumination over past, low self esteem, irritability, feeling of survivor's guilt, lack of initiative, retreat in apathy, unability of gaiety and to enjoy the pleasures of life, and return of the persecution in dreams among others. Discussions on care and treatment for the aging survivors now is still vivid in many countries. As a consequence of the holocaust experience remains our knowledge that even a fully built up and equilibrated personality can completely be altered, if circumstances are forcing. Further on it has become more clear that there is a transmission if in altered form of the personality changes to at least the second and third generations. In spite of its many difficulties and setbacks psychiatric help is possible, so that there has developed psychiatry of the persecuted as a new branch of psychiatry.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

[Why does the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) invade the nervous system?].

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has neurotropic effects that are independent of the well-known lymphotropism. They have been proved by various techniques, but their pathogenesis is not clear. It is remarkable that the neuropathological features do not correlate with the degree of the clinical symptomatology. HIV antigens and antibodies are demonstrable within the central nervous system by immunological tests. The macrophages transport the virus across the blood-brain barrier and are responsible for its persistence in that location. Different cell types, especially of the subcortical areas, have HIV-receptive CD4 molecules. These markers may be identical with the receptors for endogenous neuropeptides and it is likely that viral proteins are causing a competitive inhibition of these mostly neurotrophic factors. This interference is discussed as one of the main reasons of HIV dementia.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1989

[Irma--Emma--Martha--Anna. Some additional comments on presentations by K. R. Eissler and H. Thomä].

The author re-examines the significance of the Emma-Eckstein-episode and the Irma-dream with their implications for the theory of psychoanalysis. He follows Eissler and contradicts Schur in his argument that the identity of Irma with Emma cannot be proven and is, in any case, improbable. Neither the proof nor the refutation of this identity are of vital significance for psychoanalytic theory, but only for the suppression of dynamic psychiatry in favour of biological psychiatry.

Austria↗
PubMed1989

[Symptomatic mania in HIV infection. 3 cases of classified euphoric psychoses as a sequela of the AIDS disease].

3 case histories of patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome and acute organic psychoses are reported. Their psychoses can be classified as benefaction or blissfulness psychoses. A handfull of previous reports classify similar acute organic psychoses as symptomatic manias. The respective descriptions make obvious that these psychoses are homogenous among each other and that their contents represent a vivid reflection over a life situation which had been thoroughly changed by the AIDS illness.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1988

[Psychopathologic pictures in HIV infection: AIDS lethargy and AIDS dementia].

The paper describes the psychiatric status on the basis of 76 patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. There is considerable difference between the different stages of the disease. The disorders are divided into groups following the German and French psychopathological tradition, where the incidence is dependent on the underlying complaint. 50% of the patients suffered from chronic psychoorganic disorders (34% organic personality disorders, 16% dementia). 9% suffered from an acute psychosis caused by complications and founded on substantial physical illness. 3 patients showed symptoms of a (under given circumstances) hitherto unknown endoform psychosis. In 9% of the patients, psychoreactive disturbances (anxiety and reactive depression) were observed. Two infants had congenital development deficiencies. 25% of the patients were without any psychopathology. Patients showing organic personality disorders mostly resemble each other to such a degree as to form a separate group. We suggest to name this group according to the most prominent psychopathology as "AIDS-lethargy". This status is characterised by a specific apathy, tiredness and indolence of the patients combined with the lack of emotional participation related to their own destiny. AIDS-lethargy is the first manifestation in appearance of the HIV infection of the brain itself. Another sequel of the brain infection is AIDS dementia which can be classified as "subcortical dementia" and differs from the more current forms of dementia clinically. Affected are mainly neuropsychologic functions like arousal, attention, mood and motivation, whereas the hallmarks of cortical involvement-aphasia, agnosia and apraxia-are not present. Supplementary findings (EEG, CCT, CSF): The group of patients with chronic psychoorganic disorders differs significantly from the group with psychoreactive disorders and normals. Pathological EEG and CCT are more frequent in psychoorganic disorders. CSF-test-including the intrathecally synthesized antibodies against HIV-does not show traceable variation in either group. There are four problems which may be combined in a given acute psychopathological HIV-syndrome: 1. Being member of a risk group with its reactive, psychosocial and personality problems. 2. Individual mental and emotional reaction to the fact of infection 3. Chronic psychoorganic disturbances. 4. Acute organic psychoses as a result of complications and other physical illness.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1988

[The German science of schizophrenia and psychiatric emigration].

1933-1938 German psychiatry has suffered great losses, the consequences of which are investigated as far as schizophrenia theory is concerned. Our stress is on American schizophrenia theory, for the bulk of psychiatrists has emigrated to the US, and after their arrival an unprecedented rise of psychiatry began. Even prior to this time Kraepelin's theory of dementia praecox had, adversely to the English-American tradition, intruded into American psychiatry, seen via the critical eyes of Adolf Meyer though. Meyer added a psychodynamic cultural theory, which was followed by an unduly expansion of schizophrenia diagnoses. The phenomenological school was little common, and because of its completely different philosophy was hardly understood in the US. Its principal publication, "schizophrenia", edited 1932 by Wilmans, has not been translated into English. E. von Domarus was capable to unfold a thorough influence across Arieti, which has been shown in core example. The American psychodynamic school was hardly comparable to its European counterpart, therefore its exponents, e.g. F. and O. Kant, were barely known. One of the most important schools of family therapy originated under the personal influence of Adolf Meyer and was supported by Ruth Wilmans-Lidz. Most of its members later joined the psychoanalytic movement. Nearly all of the German speaking psychoanalysts have emigrated. Nevertheless psychoanalytic emigrants have added little to schizophrenia theory. Their contributions mainly concerned therapy, which necessitates a theory also. The example of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann has been shown more in detail, and a few others have been mentioned. Particular paragraphs are dedicated as to how Leopold Bellak conveyed European schizophrenia literatur, others to Frederick Redlich and the stratum theory, as well as Heinz Lehman and psychopharmacology. Starting 1953 psychopharmacology developed rapidly and generated a "New Psychiatry", which ended up in DSM III. Its schizophrenia theory dropped the ideas of the preceding decades and, as far as phenomenology is concerned, attached to its further development in nazi Germany.

Emigration and Immigration↗
PubMed1985

[Diogenes syndrome].

Endogenous or physically conditioned psychoses are usually considered to be the underlying cause of signs of extreme self-neglect and social retreat if these occur suddenly in persons who had been socially successful up to that time. However, in recent years several independent researchers have found extreme sociocultural refusal attitudes even in patients not displaying any psychotic disturbances. This unexpected result led to a new syndrome concept which has since been accepted internationally under the designation "Diogenes syndrome". Hence, the Diogenes syndrome comprises shameless neglect of body and personal environment, associated with collectionism, social retreat and rejection of any well-meant help. It has been reported that this constellation of signs allegedly occurs with enhanced frequency in women over 60 years of age with self-isolation tendencies in their previous life history. The following article reviews the literature published so far on the Diogenes syndrome and presents two cases treated by the authors, as a suitable means to re-examine and to define the new syndrome concept more precisely. The following conclusions can be drawn from the cases already reported in the literature and the two cases newly presented here: The socioculturally complete rejection associated with the Diogenes syndrome is the final result of a personality-based abnormal emotional reaction development. Marked seclusion tendencies in the previous life history, as well as organic brain diseases, are relevant. Medical treatment can be successful mainly by means of behaviour therapy techniques.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

The pseudopsychopathic personality and the limbic system.

The psychiatry of the limbic system has for a variety of reasons been a neglected field of study. There is a pseudopsychopathic syndrome which is characterized by sham rage-like reactions, emotional and social instability, aggressive behavior (at times), cognitive disturbances described as a special form of incoherence, abnormal social behavior in the form of social adhesiveness, carelessness and a certain proneness to criminality. All of these phenomena are stressed by alcohol even in small amounts. Normally the abnormality of the patient is not recognized as such neither by the patient nor by his doctor, but seen as seemingly normal personality traits.

Aggression↗
PubMed1983

On the reason, why psychiatry in 80 years could not integrate schizo-affective psychoses. Can it now?

Schizo-affective psychoses are neither schizophrenias nor affective psychoses. What makes them particular are the pathological changes in emotions. As has already been pointed out by Wernicke in 1900, virtually all changes in the patient's psychopathology are dependent on the actual degree of anxiety or other pathological emotions. But neither emotion nor even anxiety has ever been part of any psychiatric semiology. Although emotional psychoses--a term we would prefer instead of schizo-affective psychoses--are easy to diagnose, if the psychiatrist takes into consideration the pathology of emotions which we outline here, it seems unlikely that psychiatry is now more able to integrate these psychoses than it was 80 years ago. This can be put down to language problems, but there are also historical, symptomatical, methodological, and systematic reasons for it.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗
PubMed1983

[3-year catamneses of psychosomatically treated chronic headache syndromes].

Follow-up examination was carried out on 25 patients having suffered from severest head-ache syndromes for an average of 21.8 years. Three years after a six-week in-patient psychosomatic treatment these patients showed stable rates of improvement with regard to frequency and intensity of persistent head-ache, frequency and intensity of paroxysmal head-ache, use of analgetics, and neurotic complaints like phobic anxiety, depressive symptoms, and inhibition of aggression. These findings established the effectiveness of the therapeutic concept which we had developed in this context. This concept does not concern attempts at intervening in the pathogenetic backgrounds of isolated attacks of pain. The approach starts out with the psychosomatic conditions for the disposition to suffer pain.

Adult↗