On trial: Testing new drugs in psychiatry, 1940-1980

The heroic story of the invention of antidepressants is a key part of the psychopharmaceutical turn. On Trial revolves around one of its pioneers, psychiatrist Roland Kuhn, who practiced in Münsterlingen, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. Kuhn became famous for the ‘discovery’ of the first antidepressant, Tofranil, and more recently notorious for his numerous trials on often unsuspecting patients.

Largely based on the extensive and previously inaccessible sources of Kuhn’s pri...