Scandal and psychiatry in early nineteenth-century Prussia

An analysis of the Ernst Horn (1774-1848) malpractice scandal at Berlin's Charité Hospital in the second decade of the nineteenth century reveals two interesting facets. One was the social pressure put upon Horn to publish detailed inside information about the hospital, which ironically was to build his reputation as a pioneering clinical psychiatrist. The other was the professional antagonism among the physicians involved in she scandal. The behaviour of J. C. Reil (1759-1813) in this affair stood in sharp contrast to that of J. G. Langermann (1768-1832) and C. W. Hufeland (1762-1836), who were in charge of the hospital's administration. Much of the deep mutual antipathy among the players may be interpreted as an antagonism between the opposing camps of statists and academicians.