Main subject of this volume is the history of psychiatric nursing . The contributors summarise the state of international research in this area – especially focussing on the relationship between the patient and the nurse. The topics range from the "hospitalisation and dehospitalisation" of patients in mental asylums using the example of Norway and Canada to the issue of how nurses with deviant behaviour were managed in Switzerland. Furthermore, this edition discusses the role of nurses in conducting so-called "Heroic Therapies" in Canada and Germany, such as shock and fever therapies. One section also looks at the situation of patients in Scotland and Austria, including children, in the asylum or clinic and within their social environment. Nursing in Germany experienced a fundamental change in the 1970s; what kind of nurse training and education made possible this reform is the topic of the last part of this edition.