[Twentieth-century psychiatry in Western Europe and the USA - an attempt at a retrospection].

The article analyzes various areas of twentieth-century psychiatry: (1) a number of ideas whose roots date to the second half of the 19th century, including the ideas of biological psychiatry, constitutional psychiatry and behavioural therapy; (2) the emergence of a modern paradigm of mental disease and the contribution made to that field by Kraepaelin and Bleuler; (3) attempts to find new effective solutions, especially with regard ot biological therapy; (4) an overview of the problems and dilemmas of contemporary psychiatry. Special emphasis has been put in the article on the stages and dimensions of the socalled "psychopharmacological revolution" and the history fo the development of various groups of psychiatric drugs (chlorpromazine and the first psychiatric drugs, soporifics and sedatives, antidepressants). The author makes an attempt to point out the fundamental dilemmas of contemporary psychiatry, especially the dangers it faces from other branches of medicine and non-medical disciplines, as well as from mass culture and commercialization.