AIM: The study investigates the concepts of psychological trauma and their changes over time in psychiatric textbooks published in German between 1945 and 2002, assuming that textbooks reflect the established and dominating views of their time. METHODE: In psychiatric textbooks, the terminology, concepts of illness, and recommendations for assessment and treatment concerning psychological trauma were analysed. RESULTS: The concept of psychological trauma that had existed since 1916 continued to dominate textbooks up until the 1960s. Findings on holocaust survivors entered textbooks not before the mid 1970s. Since the mid 1990s, the concept of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder has been widely established in textbooks. CONCLUSION: Changes of dominating views on this issue in textbooks appear to have been extremely slow and occurred with significant delays in the past. The change of the dominating view in the 1970s was linked to the establishment of a new generation of leading psychiatrists. Since the introduction of PTSD, psychiatric textbooks have given up a previously negative attitude towards patients suffering from psychological trauma.
