From ‘social aid’ to ‘social psychiatry’: mental health and social welfare in post-war Greece (1950s–1960s)

The end of World War II and the Civil War (1946–1949) found a great section of the population of Greece struggling with serious economic and social problems, while the next two decades witnessed important socio-economic and cultural changes. Within this context, a group of mental health professionals claimed that their mission was not limited to the treatment of the mentally ill. They founded the Centre for Mental Health and Research and argued that ‘mental hygiene’ could improve the lives of all, relieve social problems and contribute to the modernisation and democratisation of society. During the late 1950s and the 1960s they sought to apply this vision not only in mental health but also in welfare services, the Social Aid Stations in Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki and Patrai. The Stations’ clientele originated from the less privileged social strata of these cities and surrounding villages, and requested material and practical assistance, and to a lesser extent, help with emotional and interpersonal problems. Based on unexplored case material, and building on existing literature on social psychiatry and mental hygiene, this paper addresses the gap in our knowledge of the history of mental health-cum-welfare services. It argues that the Stations envisioned and implemented an original combination of mental health and social welfare, which in the late 1950s was perceived as matching the needs and potential of the Greek population, while offering an ideal vehicle for the dissemination of mental hygiene. However, by the mid-1960s the Stations started to focus on mental health, and in the late 1960s the Athens and Patrai Stations were closed down, and the Thessaloniki and Piraeus Stations were turned into Social Psychiatry Services. This paper follows and interprets the shift from psychosocial welfare to social psychiatry, taking into consideration the transformations of Greek society, the specificities of the Stations’ operation and the profile and intentions of the Centre of Mental Health and Research. It asserts that the history of the Stations is significant in helping us understand and rethink the uneasy relationship between the social and the psychological in mental healthcare and social welfare.