Currently directed by Elisabeth Binder and Alon Chen, it is one of the 81 institutes in the Max Planck Society.

The institute became affiliated with the K. W. Society for the Advancement of Science (German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften) in 1924.

As well as fostering an international scientific reputation, the institute developed close ties with the Nazi regime.

[7][8] Felix Plaut (in 1935) and Kurt Neubürger were dismissed from the institute due to their Jewish origin.

[10] The institute received a great deal of government funding, which was openly designed to further the Nazi regime's aims.

[6] After the war, Rudin claimed he was just an academic, had only heard rumours of the killing of psychiatric patients at nearby asylums, and that he hated the Nazis.

He was supported by former institute colleague Josef Kallmann (a eugenicist himself) and famous quantum physicist Max Planck[verification needed] and released with a 500 mark fine.

Physicians, psychologists, and natural scientists conduct research on psychiatric and on the development of diagnosis and treatment.

Extensive phenotyping of the patients with analysis of blood and fluid samples, clinical psychopathology and neuropsychological testing, neurophysiological methods, neuroimaging techniques, and protein and gene analyses form the basis to investigate the causation of complex psychiatric and neurological diseases.