One of Germany’s most renowned psychiatrists will take up the Karl Jaspers Visiting Professorship in the 2014/2015 winter semester: Prof. Dr Dr Andreas Heinz, Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
Heinz succeeds Prof. Dr Markus Jäger, Senior Consultant and Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Ulm, who held the first Karl Jaspers Visiting Professorship in the summer semester. In a series of three lectures, Heinz will explore the fundamental questions of medical and psychiatric thought in the spirit of Karl Jaspers. The series begins on Monday, 2 February, at 7.30 pm at the Karl Jaspers House (Unter den Eichen 22) in Oldenburg. The clinical psychiatrist will then speak on ‘The concept of mental illness and its philosophical premises’.
In his second lecture as part of the Karl Jaspers Visiting Professorship, Heinz will present ‘Evolutionary and anthropological models in schizophrenia research’ on Tuesday, 3 February, 6.00 pm, in the ballroom of the Karl Jaspers Clinic in Wehnen. One day later, on Wednesday 4 February at 6.00 pm at the Karl Jaspers House, Heinz’s lecture. A two-day colloquium on ‘Psychopathology as the Study of Humanity’ and on ‘The History of the Problem of Suicide’, taking place on 5 and 6 February at the Karl Jaspers House, will round off the visiting professorship.
Heinz studied medicine and completed his doctoral thesis on ‘Regression in Schizophrenics – a pathogenetic concept in historical change’. This was followed by studies in philosophy and anthropology; in 2014, Heinz completed his doctoral thesis in philosophy on ‘The Concept of Mental Illness’ at the University of Potsdam. Heinz was a senior registrar at the University Neurological Clinic of the Ruhr University Bochum and obtained his habilitation in 1998 on the topic ‘The dopaminergic reinforcement system – function, connections to other neurotransmitter systems and pathopsychological correlates’. Before accepting the professorship in “Addiction Research” at the University of Heidelberg in 2000, he was involved in the scientific development of the Feldberg Specialist Neurological Clinic. Since 2002, Heinz has been Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Charité.
The Karl Jaspers Visiting Professorship is funded by the Karl Jaspers Society with the support of the Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg. The patron is Lutz Stratmann, former Minister for Science of Lower Saxony. The academic coordination of the visiting professorship is the responsibility of Prof. Dr Matthias Bormuth, holder of the Heisenberg Chair in Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Oldenburg, in close consultation with the European Medical School.
Dates for the Karl Jaspers Visiting Professorship in the 2014/2015 winter semester:
Monday, 2 February, 7.30 pm, Karl Jaspers House: ‘On the concept of mental illness and its philosophical premises’ (lecture)
Tuesday, 3 February, 6.00 pm, Karl Jaspers Clinic: ‘Evolutionary and anthropological models in schizophrenia research’ (lecture)
Wednesday, 4 February, 7.30 pm, Karl Jaspers House: ‘Open psychiatry and the use of coercive measures’ (lecture)
Thursday, 5 February, 2.00 pm to 6.00 pm, Karl Jaspers House: ‘Psychopathology as the Study of Humanity – Interdisciplinary Perspectives’ (colloquium)
Friday, 6 February, 5.00 pm to 9.00 pm, Karl Jaspers-Haus: ‘The History of the Problem of Suicide – Psychiatric and Philosophical Perspectives’ (colloquium)