And Eric Coates critiques a paper by E. Fuller Torrey about Nazi attempts to eradicate schizophrenia by killing or sterilizing schizophrenics, noting that the incidence rate of schizophrenia in Germany actually doubled after this, thus calling the gene hypothesis into question.
The Invisible Holocaust and the Gene Hypothesis
“The systematic sterilization and killing of individuals with schizophrenia in Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945 was influenced by several factors. Perhaps, of greatest importance was a belief that schizophrenia was a simple Mendelian inherited disease, passed down from generation to generation. In Germany, this theory was promoted by Drs Ernst Rüdin and Franz Kallmann, among others.”— Dr. E. Fuller Torrey and Robert H. Yolken, “Psychiatric Genocide: Nazi Attempts to Eradicate Schizophrenia,” Schizophrenia Bulletin, 16 September 2009
