| Dr. J. Bastiaans (1917-1997), affiliated with Leiden s University Clinic, was adept at defending his method of treatment. Although already controversial during the seventies, Bastiaans was permitted to continue treating his patients with LSD. A special government advisory committee of foreign experts concluded that treatment based on LSD was unjustifiable -- except when Bastiaans was in charge. Another indication of Bastiaans success was that he kept attracting patients, despite widely apparent problems. The interest in war victims grew during the sixties. In 1972, a temporary high point was reached with a broadcast by filmmaker Louis van Gasteren in which Bastiaans treated a victim with LSD. Although fame now lay within easy reach, that prospect collapsed almost immediately like a house of cards. The support of his patients and the political authorities enabled Bastiaans to continue his controversial treatment until the end of the eighties, despite the fact that he kept getting into hot water, either as instigator, target, or mere participant. A biography would tend to place too much emphasis on his personality, which in some instances did play a role; but more often the controversies were the result of interplay among various parties. As such, mapping out the social and political forces around him would seem of greater interest. This can give us insight into the development of psychiatry, the relative status of the patient and the practitioner in general and that of the victims of war in particular, as well as the remembrance of the Second World War. This is followed by a description, successively, of the theoretical and scientific context, the patients and their relationship to Bastiaans, and, finally, the social forces in which Bastiaans plied his profession. |
