Gustav Richard Heyer (29 April 1890 – 19 November 1967) was a

Jungian Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...

psychologist, "the first significant person in Germany to be attracted to Jung's psychology".

Life

Heyer was a

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

medical doctor. In 1918 he married Lucie Grote, a masseuse, dancer and student of

Elsa Gindler Elsa Gindler (19 June 1885 – 8 January 1961) was a somatic bodywork pioneer in Germany. Born in Berlin, teacher of gymnastik, student of Hedwig Kallmeyer (who, in turn, had been a student of Genevieve Stebbins). From her personal experience of ...

. Heyer and his wife pioneered together a combined physical and psychological therapy.Don Johnson, ''Bone, breath & gesture: practices of embodiment'', p.55 They both underwent training with

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...

in the mid-1920s, and Heyer became a close friend of Jung. He was Jung's deputy for a year when Jung controversially assumed the presidency of the

General Medical Society for Psychotherapy International General Medical Society for Psychotherapy was a society founded in 1926. The German physicians Gustav Richard Heyer and Carl Haberlin were among the organization's founders. The prefix ''international'' was added in 1934, after Carl Gu ...

, and Jung wrote an introduction for Heyer's ''The Organism of the Mind''. In 1936, however, he and Jung argued at the annual meeting of the society.Thomas Kirsch, ''The Jungians: a comparative and historical perspective'', p.124-6 Lucie Grote divorced Heyer in the mid-1930s, partly because he loved another woman. Later, he joined the Nazi party in 1937, and in 1939 went to Berlin to teach and see patients at the Goering Institute. Although apparently not personally anti-Semitic - in September 1938, for example, he wrote a warm letter of recommendation for the Jew Max Zeller, who had been in analysis with him that year before being interned in a camp - Heyer remained a member of the Nazi party until 1944. In 1944, reviewing the German edition of Jung's writings, Heyer criticised Jung 's "western-democratic audience" and his attack upon

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...

. After the war Jung denounced Heyer for his Nazi past, and refused ever to meet with him again. Heyer moved to practice and write in rural

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

until his death. Heyer's daughter burned all of her father's papers.

Works

* ''Seelenführung: Möglichkeiten, Wege, Grenzen'', Potsdam: Müller & Kiepenheuer, 1929. * ''Der Organismus der Seele : Eine Einführung in die analytische Seelenheilkunde'', München: J. F. Lehmann, 1932. Translated by Eden and

Cedar Paul Cedar Paul, ''née'' Gertrude Mary Davenport (1880 – 18 March 1972) was a singer, author, translator and journalist.''Who Was Who'' Biography Gertrude Davenport came from a musical family: she was the granddaughter of the composer George Alex ...

as ''The organism of the mind; an introduction to analytical psychotherapy'', London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1933. * ''Praktische Seelenheilkunde; eine Einführung in die Psychotherapie für Ärzte und Studierende'', München: J.F. Lehmann, 1935.

References

1890 births 1967 deaths Physicians in the Nazi Party German psychologists Jungian psychologists 20th-century psychologists {{Germany-psychologist-stub