One of Germany's most renowned psychiatrists will take over 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, Managing Senior Physician at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Ulm, who held the first Karl Jaspers Visiting Professorship last summer semester. In three lectures, Heinz will explore the fundamental questions of medical and psychiatric thinking in the spirit of Karl Jaspers. The first lecture will take place on Monday, 2 February at 7.30 pm in 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 prerequisites".
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 at 6.00 pm in the Festsaal of the Karl Jaspers Clinic in Wehnen. One day later, Wednesday 4 February at 6 p.m. in the Karl Jaspers House, Heinz's lecture will focus on "Open psychiatry and dealing with coercive measures". A two-day colloquium on "Psychopathology as a Study of Man" and the "Problematic History of Suicide" on 5 and 6 February in the Karl Jaspers House will complement the guest professorship.
Heinz studied medicine and wrote his doctoral thesis on "Regression in schizophrenics - a pathogenetic concept in historical change". This was followed by studies in philosophy and anthropology; Heinz completed his philosophical dissertation on "The concept of mental illness" at the University of Potsdam in 2014. Heinz was a senior physician at the Neurological University Clinic of the Ruhr University Bochum and habilitated in 1998 on the topic of "The dopaminergic reinforcement system - function, connection to other neurotransmitter systems and pathopsychological correlates". Before accepting the professorship of "Addiction Research" at the University of Heidelberg in 2000, he was involved in the scientific development of the Feldberg Neurological Specialist Clinic. Heinz has been Director of the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Charité since 2002.
The Karl Jaspers Visiting Professorship is organised by the Karl Jaspers Society with the support of the Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg. The patron is Lower Saxony's former Minister of Science, Lutz Stratmann. Prof Dr Matthias Bormuth, holder of the Heisenberg Professorship for Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Oldenburg, is responsible for the academic coordination of the visiting professorship in close cooperation with the European Medical School.
Dates of the Karl Jaspers Visiting Professorship in the winter semester 2014/2015:
Monday, 2 February, 7.30 pm, Karl Japsers-Haus: "Zum Begriff der psychischen Krankheit und seinen philosophischen Voraussetzungen" (Lecture)
Tuesday, 3 February, 6 p.m., Karl Jaspers Clinic: "Evolutionary and anthropological models in schizophrenia research" (lecture)
Wednesday, 4 February, 7.30 p.m., Karl Jaspers-Haus: "Open psychiatry and dealing with coercive measures" (lecture)
Thursday, 5 February, 14.00 to 18.00, Karl Jaspers-Haus: "Psychopathology as a study of man - interdisciplinary perspectives" (colloquium)
Friday, 6 February, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Karl Jaspers-Haus: "Problematic history of suicide - psychiatric-philosophical horizons" (colloquium)