Magaly Tornay - Böcker

The heroic story of the invention of antidepressants is a key part of the psychopharmaceutical turn. On Trial revolves around one of its pioneers, psychiatrist Roland Kuhn, who practiced in Münsterlingen, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. Kuhn became famous for the ‘discovery’ of the first antidepressant, Tofranil, and more recently notorious for his numerous trials on often unsuspecting patients.Largely based on the extensive and previously inaccessible sources of Kuhn’s private archive, the book delves into the early days of industry-sponsored clinical research in psychiatry. It examines how the clinic, patients, doctors, nursing staff, corporations, and authorities interacted in the trials. Conducted from the 1940s to 1980s, the Münsterlingen drug trials are historicised and situated in the period’s evolving landscape of experimentation.

The heroic story of the invention of antidepressants is a key part of the psychopharmaceutical turn. On Trial revolves around one of its pioneers, psychiatrist Roland Kuhn, who practiced in Münsterlingen, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. Kuhn became famous for the ‘discovery’ of the first antidepressant, Tofranil, and more recently notorious for his numerous trials on often unsuspecting patients.Largely based on the extensive and previously inaccessible sources of Kuhn’s private archive, the book delves into the early days of industry-sponsored clinical research in psychiatry. It examines how the clinic, patients, doctors, nursing staff, corporations, and authorities interacted in the trials. Conducted from the 1940s to 1980s, the Münsterlingen drug trials are historicised and situated in the period’s evolving landscape of experimentation.

Wie beeinflussen psychoaktive Stoffe unser Bild von uns selbst? Verstehen wir seit der psychopharmakologischen Wende unser Inneres anders und wie hat sich dies auf unsere Vorstellungen von Gesundheit und Krankheit ausgewirkt? Entlang dieser Fragen zeichnet Magaly Tornay die Geschichte psychoaktiver Stoffe in der Schweiz seit dem Aufkommen des LSD nach. Das Spektrum der psychoaktiven Stoffe wurde in der Folge um Antidepressiva, Tranquilizer und Anregungsmittel erweitert. Der Mikroblick der Psychiater, die sich individuellen Patienten widmeten, wurde überlagert von einer Sichtweise, die psychische Störungen als chemisch veränderbar, experimentalisierbar und statistisch erfassbar begriff. Die Autorin zeigt auf, wie im Schnittfeld von psychiatrischen Kliniken, Pharmaunternehmen und Wissenschaft ein neues Objekt Kontur gewann: eine psychopharmakologische Grammatik, die den Diskurs über unser Inneres entscheidend mitprägte.