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J Relig Health (2012) 51:256268 DOI 10.1007/s10943-011-9562-9
ORIGINAL PAPER
Holger Steinberg Hubertus Himmerich
Published online: 2 February 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract Heinroth is known as the rst professor of psychiatry. His chair was established 200 years ago on the 21st of October 1811. His major importance for the history of psychotherapy has not yet been acknowledged. Heinroth regarded restriction as well as activation as fundamental remedies for mental illnesses. Restriction meant making a voluntary decision to live a life based on religious faith and to abstain from earthly satisfaction. Within his specic psychotherapeutical modulethe direct-psychic methodhe utilized the patients mental powersmood, mind and will, but also his spirituality. His therapeutic approach additionally contained elements of cognitive, behavioral and conversational therapy.
Keywords Johann Christian August Heinroth Psychotherapy History of psychiatry
Holistic Medicine Romantic psychiatry History of psychotherapy
Introduction
Until now Johann Christian August Heinroth (17 January 177326 October 1843; see Fig. 1) is best known as the rst holder of a chair of psychiatry in Europe, perhaps even in the world. The chair was established 200 years ago on October 21, 1811, at Leipzig University by command of Frederick August I, King of Saxony (17501827) (Steinberg 2004a; Steinberg 2011). However, this same chair could also be regarded as the rst chair of psychotherapy. Even the ofcial name of it alludes to this: Chair of Psychic Therapy (Psychische Therapie). Perhaps that is why Marx also referred to the rst Leipzig chair as a Chair of Psychotherapy (Marx 1990, 1991). Furthermore, Heinroth considered himself
H. Steinberg
Archives for the History of Psychiatry in Leipzig, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstrae 10, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
H. Himmerich (&)
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstrae 10, 04103 Leipzig, Germanye-mail: [email protected]
Johann Christian August Heinroth (17731843):The First Professor of Psychiatry as a Psychotherapist
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Fig. 1 Johann Christian August Heinroth. Lithography by C. Lutherer. Source: Universitatsbibliothek Leipzig, Sondersammlungen
and his colleagues to be psychic doctors (Heinroth 1818a), by which he meant people with a strong medical, pedagogical, philosophical, and, last but not least, theological background. For Heinroth, the doctor had to act according to Christian moral laws when curing his patients, by which he understood leading...