World Social Psychiatry

ART, LITERATURE, AND HISTORY RELEVANT TO SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY
Year
: 2020  |  Volume : 2  |  Issue : 3  |  Page : 225--229

Psychiatry in the Time of Cholera: A Quarter-Century of Albanian Thematic Writings (1959–1984)


Gentian Vyshka1, Tedi Mana2, Alessia Mihali1 
1 Department of Biomedical and Experimental, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine, Tirana, Albania
2 Service of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center, Tirana, Albania

Correspondence Address:
Prof. Gentian Vyshka
Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine, Tirana
Albania

In the second half of the last century, Albanian society adopted a totalitarian way of communist thinking, that could not have spared medical disciplines. Psychiatry was and probably remains a stigmatized field, whose problems almost never were discussed openly. Specialized writings on psychiatry were available and could shed light on the themes and questions of concern. A periodical journal entitled Psychoneurological Works circulated in its print edition, with its first issue of 1959, its tenth issue of 1984 till it ceased publishing some years later. The journal was a mixture of neurological and psychiatric contributions, with the latter reflecting consistent time-related shifts in thematic, terminology, and data exposure. The panegyric and enthusiastic statements served as a good disguise for the immense ailing of patients and the ethical challenges that psychiatrists were facing, while exerting their profession in the time of severe dictatorship, when the disrespect of human being reached its apogee.


How to cite this article:
Vyshka G, Mana T, Mihali A. Psychiatry in the Time of Cholera: A Quarter-Century of Albanian Thematic Writings (1959–1984).World Soc Psychiatry 2020;2:225-229


How to cite this URL:
Vyshka G, Mana T, Mihali A. Psychiatry in the Time of Cholera: A Quarter-Century of Albanian Thematic Writings (1959–1984). World Soc Psychiatry [serial online] 2020 [cited 2023 Mar 24 ];2:225-229
Available from: https://www.worldsocpsychiatry.org/article.asp?issn=2667-1077;year=2020;volume=2;issue=3;spage=225;epage=229;aulast=Vyshka;type=0