Posted by Marja Keuning, KNHG, Tuesday, June 23, 2009

*Table of Contents of the Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de
Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 124 (2009) 2
*

*
Inhoud/Contents *

*Redactioneel/Editorial *161

*Artikelen/Articles *

·         Zelfstandigheidspolitiek. De achtergrond van een cruciale term
in het buitenlands beleid van Nederland 1900-1940,  Johan den Hertog 163

·         Democratie onder druk. De reglementering van politieke
manifestaties in Amsterdam tijdens het interbellum,  Harm Kaal 186

*Discussiedossier/Discussion file *

·         Verward van geest en ander ongerief , Ali de Regt 209

·         Re-Minding the Dutch , Hans Pols 217

·         Ander ongerief , Timo Bolt 225

·         Repliek , Harry Oosterhuis en Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra 233

*Review article *

·         Antropologie van de moderne geschiedwetenschap?  Ed Jonker 241

*Recensies/reviews *253

*Lijst van recensies/list of reviews *314

*Lijst van webrecensies/list of web reviews (www.knhg.nl) *316

*Medewerkers/sters / Contribuants *318



*Abstracts *

* *

*Articles *



*The Policy of Independence. The Background of a Crucial Phrase in Dutch
Foreign Policy 1900-1940, Johan den Hertog *

The phrase ‘policy of independence’ was coined by the Dutch Minister of
Foreign Affairs Van Karnebeek after the First World War. It has aroused
a lot of discussion ever since. The phrase is often portrayed as sign of
a change from a passive policy of neutrality to a much more active
foreign policy. In this article the use of the phrase and the question
of continuity or discontinuity are raised. This is done first of all on
the basis of some crucial episodes from the First World War and
subsequently the Dutch policy towards the German emperor and crown
prince, Belgium and the League of Nations. This contribution argues that
throughout those years the Dutch government pursued a policy
characterized by activity and adopted an attitude that adhered to
international law. Even before 1914 this approach was referred to as
‘independent’. Thereafter, Van Karnebeek coined the phrase ‘policy of
independence’ to give expression to this prevailing attitude.



*Democracy under Pressure. The Regulation of Public Politics in
Amsterdam during the Interwar Years , Harm Kaal. *

This article explores the regulation of public politics in the
Netherlands during the interwar years. It investigates how this policy
was established, which public authorities were responsible for it, and
how they accounted for the rather strict regulations. Particular
attention is paid to developments in Amsterdam. The article shows that
the regulation of political manifestations was not necessarily carried
out as a response to actual political unrest, but was increasingly
imposed on Amsterdam by the national government. Consequently, the
opportunity to organize political manifestations was slowly but surely
curbed. Moreover, the centralization and bureaucratization of public
order policy amounted to the withdrawal of public order policy from
democratic control. During the interwar years the Dutch democracy was
therefore challenged by both the strict regulation of public politics,
as well as the way in which this policy was established.



*Discussion *



1 *Mental Disorder and other Encumbrances, Ali de Regt *

The three volumes of Verward van geest offer an extensive overview of
the history of psychiatry and mental health care in the Netherlands from
the 1870s to the present day. The authors show that in order to explain
the increase and differentiation in both the type of care arrangements
as well as the clients, the correlation between supply and demand has to
be studied. The study is not only descriptive, but also an attempt to
interpret and explain the developments. To do so, the authors use
concepts such as professionalisation, protoprofessionalisation,
professional competition, psychologisation, problem culture, and so
forth. However, these different concepts are not aggregated under one
single theory, and the sum total of the developments is not approached
from one central viewpoint. Instead, the authors have opted for an
eclectic approach and use different theoretical concepts to explain
different parts and episodes of the historical development in its totality.



2 *Re-Minding the Dutch, Hans Pols *

Verward van Geest is commended because of its careful, balanced,
detailed, meticulously researched, and comprehensive approach of the
development of the psychiatric profession in the Netherlands. The
authors relate Dutch developments to initiatives abroad, some of which
were taken up by Dutch psychiatrists and developed further. The
development of the extensive network of out-patient mental health
facilities in particular, which makes the Dutch system stand apart from
that of most others, receives a lot of attention. Unfortunately, the
history of psychiatry in the former Dutch colonial empire is not
covered. The study is applauded for providing a wealth of material that
could give a new impulse to discussions about the nature of mental
health in the Netherlands, such as the following: How are supply and
demand in mental health care related to each other? Do individuals with
a lower socio-economic status have adequate access to care? How did the
relationship between biological, social, and psychological approaches to
mental illness and individual distress change over time?



3 *Inconvenience, Timo Bolt *

Verward van geest en ander ongerief by Harry Oosterhuis and Marijke
Gijswijt-Hofstra is a voluminous and sound reference work about the
history of psychiatry in the Netherlands. Striving for completeness,
however, the authors failed to deliver a synthesis in the true sense of
the word. They compiled and pasted an impressive amount of (mostly)
secondary literature, but left little room for critical reflection and
discussion. Their account of the ‘psychologisation’ of Dutch society
from the 1960s onwards is exemplary and one of the main themes of the
book. Oosterhuis and Gijswijt-Hofstra (only) summarize the relevant
sociological studies on this subject, without addressing their
problematic nature or the inconsistencies between them. As a result,
their ‘sociologised’ description of the supposed process of
psychologisation in the Netherlands is rather superficial and
stereotypical.



4 *Response, Harry Oosterhuis and Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra *

In our response to the three reviews of our book we focus on five
critical points that were made, namely: the presumed absence of a
central question and overall explanatory framework; the argument that
the work is not a synthesis; the problem of the interplay between the
supply of and demand for mental health care; the relation between the
perspective of mental health experts and our interpretation of this in
terms of cultural pessimism as well as social design; and the objection
that our elaboration of the process of psychologisation is unclear. We
would like to emphasise that we do indeed present a definition of a
central problem in the introduction and that we discuss it extensively
and systematically in our conclusion. We also explain what, in our view,
a historical synthesis should aim for and that our approach is
empirical-historical rather than theoretical-sociological. We believe
that we maintain a considerable distance from the actor's perspective at
that time and that the criticism of our description of psychologisation
is based on a limited understanding of that term.



*Review article*

* *

*The Anthropology of Modern Historiography?, Ed Jonker *

Jo Tollebeek’s book about the Belgian historian Paul Fredericq is meant
to be an example of ‘the anthropology of modern professional history’.
The author believes that this anthropology goes beyond older genres. The
traditional historiography focused too heavily on the intellectual
content of history writing, whereas the sociology of knowledge only
looked at the infrastructure of history as a profession. The post-modern
deconstruction of the political role of history writing has become
rather reductionistic. The anthropological gaze has to combine all of
these points of view and then try to embed them in background
information. Does Tollebeek succeed in doing this? We certainly get a
rich picture of content, social context and professional practice. The
thrills of archival research, the routine of day-to-day academic life,
and the (management of) emotional ties within the community of scholars
in particular, all come alive. It comes at a price, though. The
precision and specificity of micro-history make comparisons within
larger frameworks and developments difficult. This macro level makes
more selection and simplification inevitable.

--

D.J. Wolffram
History Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen
http://www.rug.nl/staff/d.j.wolffram/index
Tel 0031 50 3637699 , 0031 592 375522 (home)

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