Socialist Patients' Collective
Encyclopedia
The Socialist Patients' Collective (in German Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv, and known as the SPK) was a patients' collective founded in Heidelberg
in February 1970, by Wolfgang Huber
. The kernel of the SPK's ideological program is summated in the slogan Turn Illness into a weapon, which remains actively practiced. The SPK emerged from the Patients' Front, that was founded in 1965. The SPK declared its self-dissolution in July 1971 as a strategic withdrawal but the SPK continued to exist as Patients' Front, which is currently known as the Patients' Front/Socialist Patients' Collective (PF/SPK(H)). For the SPK, illness really exists as an undeniable fact and it is caused by the capitalist system. The SPK is pro illness, in favor of illness, considering illness as the protest against capitalism and considering illness the anticipation of the human species that does not yet exist but that should be created through illness. The SPK fights against capitalism and against all doctors considering them to be the ruling class of the system and poisonous to the human species. The most widely known text of the PF/SPK(H) is the book SPK - Turn illness into a weapon with prefaces by both the founder of the SPK, Wolfgang Huber, and Jean-Paul Sartre
.
, his wife Ursula Schaefer, two other colleagues, along with 40 ex-patients from the Heidelberg
Psychiatric Clinic. They were reacting, in part, in response to the backlash following the new left revolts of 1968, which sought to drive the revolutionary left from the university.
In a 4-room apartment at Heidelberg, the SPK aimed to establish a free space for political therapy, re-framing illness as a contradiction created by capitalism, which could be embraced to bring an end to the system which gave it life. They believed that the sick formed a revolutionary class of dispossessed people, who could be radicalized to struggle against oppression. Organizing by sickness instead of socio-economic class allowed middle-class, student leftists to articulate their own feelings of psychic and political oppression and struggle against the status quo in their own right, along with other oppressed groups. Additionally, sickness had the advantage of being, according to the SPK, familiar to everyone, and so everyone was a potential revolutionary, so long as they disavowed the medical establishment. Like other anti-psychiatry experiments, such as Kingsley Hall
and Villa 21, they questioned the patient/doctor division, going so far as to call for an end to the "doctor's class".
The collective produced leaflets, held teach-ins, and petitioned the school to increase awareness and gain recognition for their experiment, which was informed by Hegel, Marx, Freud, Reich
,. They conducted individual and group agitations, called "single" and "group agitations", working from 9am to 10pm or later.
They soon came under fire from the school and the psychiatric clinic, and the SPK's funds, the doctors' salary, and meeting space were threatened. In the autumn of 1970, the university convened a panel of 3 experts who suggested the SPK should be institucionalized in the University. Meanwhile the medicinie faculty convened 3 persons who pronounced against SPK. The Minister overseeing the panel ultimately sided with the SPK's critics coming from the Medicine Faculty and against the dictamen made by the 3 experts convened by the university, and ended their funding and ordered an eviction.
The decision provoked a confrontation between the SPK and the university, which led to a sit-in and attracted the attention of a wider audience, including the police, in a climate of hypervigilance brought about by radical left-wing extrajudicial actions. Ultimately, the collective moved out of the university and into the homes of its members. When, on June 24, 1971, a mysterious shooting at Heidelberg police station was attributed to the Baader-Meinhof group
, the police began conducting raids on SPK members' houses. Three hundred fifty officers were charged with finding the shooter. At its peak, the SPK counted about 500 members; of these, 7 were arrested in the raids, including Huber and Schaefer on July 21, 1971. By some accounts, the arrests were the end of the SPK.
As part of a disinformation campaign aimed at reducing West German support for the Red Army Faction
, the SPK was alleged to have conducted working circles based on explosives, radio transmission, photography
, judo
and karate
, using group therapy sessions on dialectics, Marxism
, religion
, education
and sexuality
as a cover. The rhetoric denouncing the SPK as engaged in terrorist activity and a precursor to the RAF emerged after the arrest of Kristina Berster, who crossed the US border illegally seeking asylum from West German counterterrorism operations. Berster was acquitted of all conspiracy charges, and the disinformation campaign was exposed by Greg Guma
.
"By all accounts," including the admission of a West German embassy spokesman, the "SPC was fairly harmless." Kristina Berster explained that "the purpose of the Socialist Patients Collective was to 'find out the reasons why people feel lonely, isolated and depressed and the circumstances which caused these problems.'"
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
in February 1970, by Wolfgang Huber
Wolfgang Huber
Wolfgang Huber is a prominent German theologian and ethicist. Huber served as bishop of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia until November 2009...
. The kernel of the SPK's ideological program is summated in the slogan Turn Illness into a weapon, which remains actively practiced. The SPK emerged from the Patients' Front, that was founded in 1965. The SPK declared its self-dissolution in July 1971 as a strategic withdrawal but the SPK continued to exist as Patients' Front, which is currently known as the Patients' Front/Socialist Patients' Collective (PF/SPK(H)). For the SPK, illness really exists as an undeniable fact and it is caused by the capitalist system. The SPK is pro illness, in favor of illness, considering illness as the protest against capitalism and considering illness the anticipation of the human species that does not yet exist but that should be created through illness. The SPK fights against capitalism and against all doctors considering them to be the ruling class of the system and poisonous to the human species. The most widely known text of the PF/SPK(H) is the book SPK - Turn illness into a weapon with prefaces by both the founder of the SPK, Wolfgang Huber, and Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
.
History
The group was officially founded on March 2, 1970 at Heidelberg University by Wolfgang HuberWolfgang Huber
Wolfgang Huber is a prominent German theologian and ethicist. Huber served as bishop of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia until November 2009...
, his wife Ursula Schaefer, two other colleagues, along with 40 ex-patients from the Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
Psychiatric Clinic. They were reacting, in part, in response to the backlash following the new left revolts of 1968, which sought to drive the revolutionary left from the university.
In a 4-room apartment at Heidelberg, the SPK aimed to establish a free space for political therapy, re-framing illness as a contradiction created by capitalism, which could be embraced to bring an end to the system which gave it life. They believed that the sick formed a revolutionary class of dispossessed people, who could be radicalized to struggle against oppression. Organizing by sickness instead of socio-economic class allowed middle-class, student leftists to articulate their own feelings of psychic and political oppression and struggle against the status quo in their own right, along with other oppressed groups. Additionally, sickness had the advantage of being, according to the SPK, familiar to everyone, and so everyone was a potential revolutionary, so long as they disavowed the medical establishment. Like other anti-psychiatry experiments, such as Kingsley Hall
Kingsley Hall
Kingsley Hall is a community centre in the East End of London. It dates back to the work of Doris Lester and Muriel Lester, who had a nursery school in nearby Bruce Road. Their brother, Kingsley Lester, died aged 26 in 1914, leaving money for work in the local area for "educational, social and...
and Villa 21, they questioned the patient/doctor division, going so far as to call for an end to the "doctor's class".
The collective produced leaflets, held teach-ins, and petitioned the school to increase awareness and gain recognition for their experiment, which was informed by Hegel, Marx, Freud, Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
,. They conducted individual and group agitations, called "single" and "group agitations", working from 9am to 10pm or later.
They soon came under fire from the school and the psychiatric clinic, and the SPK's funds, the doctors' salary, and meeting space were threatened. In the autumn of 1970, the university convened a panel of 3 experts who suggested the SPK should be institucionalized in the University. Meanwhile the medicinie faculty convened 3 persons who pronounced against SPK. The Minister overseeing the panel ultimately sided with the SPK's critics coming from the Medicine Faculty and against the dictamen made by the 3 experts convened by the university, and ended their funding and ordered an eviction.
The decision provoked a confrontation between the SPK and the university, which led to a sit-in and attracted the attention of a wider audience, including the police, in a climate of hypervigilance brought about by radical left-wing extrajudicial actions. Ultimately, the collective moved out of the university and into the homes of its members. When, on June 24, 1971, a mysterious shooting at Heidelberg police station was attributed to the Baader-Meinhof group
Red Army Faction
The radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
, the police began conducting raids on SPK members' houses. Three hundred fifty officers were charged with finding the shooter. At its peak, the SPK counted about 500 members; of these, 7 were arrested in the raids, including Huber and Schaefer on July 21, 1971. By some accounts, the arrests were the end of the SPK.
As part of a disinformation campaign aimed at reducing West German support for the Red Army Faction
Red Army Faction
The radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
, the SPK was alleged to have conducted working circles based on explosives, radio transmission, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
and karate
Karate
is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...
, using group therapy sessions on dialectics, Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
, religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
as a cover. The rhetoric denouncing the SPK as engaged in terrorist activity and a precursor to the RAF emerged after the arrest of Kristina Berster, who crossed the US border illegally seeking asylum from West German counterterrorism operations. Berster was acquitted of all conspiracy charges, and the disinformation campaign was exposed by Greg Guma
Greg Guma
Greg Guma born March 4, 1947 in New York City, is an American progressive journalist and author.A graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Vermont , Guma edited a variety of publications from the 1970s to 2005, including The Vermont Vanguard Press, the state’s first commercial...
.
"By all accounts," including the admission of a West German embassy spokesman, the "SPC was fairly harmless." Kristina Berster explained that "the purpose of the Socialist Patients Collective was to 'find out the reasons why people feel lonely, isolated and depressed and the circumstances which caused these problems.'"
Dissolution and the IZRU
Even before Huber was arrested in June 1971, the SPK dissolved. The IZRU or Information Zentrum Rote Volks-Universität (in English; Information Center of the Red People's University) was founded with some former SPK members, but the IZRU was neither the official or unofficial SPK. It organized international congresses, founded a newspaper: RVU (or Rote Volksuniversität, Red People's University), it supported prisoners and reprinted some SPK literature.The SPK today
Since 1973 the SPK was continued as PF, means Patientenfront (Patients' Front), proclaimed by Huber in solitary confinement (Stammheim Prison). Huber himself, founder of the SPK, has entrusted all juridical matters concerning the SPK to Mrs. Ingeborg Muhler, attorney and MA in Computer Science, being herself an active member of the SPK already since 1970/71.Further reading
- Website: www.spkpfh.de Official site of the Socialist Patients' Collective.
- Book: Jillian BeckerJillian BeckerJillian Becker is a novelist, prize-winning story-writer, critic, journalist, lecturer, best known internationally as a writer, researcher, and authority on the subject of terrorism.-Life:...
, Hitler's Children: Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist GangHitler's ChildrenHitler's Children is a 1977 biography of the West German militant left-wing group, the Red Army Faction , by South African author Jillian Becker....
, HarperCollins Distribution Services; New edition (28 Jun 1978) ISBN 9780586046654. - Book: Wolfgang Huber, Spk: Turn Illness into a Weapon, Krrim Verlag Fur Krankheit (Jan 2002). ISBN 978-3926491176.
- Book: Tom Vague, Televisionaries: the red army faction story (1963-1993), AK Press; Rev. and Updated Ed edition (9 Jun 1994). ISBN 978-1873176474
- Socialist Patients' Collective/Patients' Front SPK/PF (H)
- Timeline
- English Google translation: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://mathphys.fsk.uni-heidelberg.de/ruprecht1.html&ei=iSQqTMidFYSClAe91vDtAw&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CDAQ7gEwCDgK&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522wolfgang%2Bhuber%2522%2B%2522spk%2522%2Bheidelberg%2522%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DTge%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Db"Turn Illness into a Weapon,"]. Original German text: "Aus der Krankheit eine Waffe machen!," Ruprecht (Heidelberger Studierenzeitung), Number 35 (16 May 1995).