Johannes Heinrich Schultz (June 20, 1884 – September 19, 1970) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
psychiatrist and an independent
psychotherapist. Schultz became world-famous for the development of a system of self-
hypnosis
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
called
autogenic training
Autogenic training is a desensitization-relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Heinrich Schultz by which a psychophysiologically determined relaxation response is obtained. The technique was first published in 1932. St ...
.
Life
He studied medicine in
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
,
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911.
General information
The ori ...
(where he met
Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers (, ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspe ...
) and
Breslau. He earned his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
from Göttingen in 1907. After receiving his
medical license
A medical license is an occupational license that permits a person to legally practice medicine. In most countries, a person must have a medical license bestowed either by a specified government-approved professional association or a governme ...
in 1908, he practiced at the polyclinic at the Medical University Clinic at Göttingen until 1911. Afterwards he worked at the Paul-Ehrlich Institute in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
, at the insane asylum at
Chemnitz and finally at the Psychiatric University Clinic at
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...
under
Otto Binswanger, where he earned his
habilitation in 1915.
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he served as director of a
sanitorium
A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...
in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. In 1919 he became a professor of Psychiatry and Neuropathology at Jena. In 1920 he became Chief Doctor and scientific leader at Dr.
Heinrich Lahmann
Johann Heinrich Lahmann (30 March 1860 – 1 June 1905) was a German physician who was a pioneer of naturopathic medicine. He was a native of Bremen, Germany.
He earned his medical doctorate at the University of Heidelberg, and after graduati ...
's sanatorium ''Weisser Hirsch'' in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. In 1924, he established himself as a psychiatrist in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
.
From 1925-26 he was a member of the founding committee for the first General Doctors' Congress for Psychotherapy, board member of the
General Medical Society for Psychotherapy (established in 1927). From 1928 he advised the organization's newsletter, and after 1930 he co-edited (with
Arthur Kronfeld
Arthur Kronfeld (January 9, 1886 – October 16, 1941) was a German psychiatrist of Jewish origin, and eventually a professor at the University of Berlin. His sister Maria Dronke found fame as an actor in New Zealand. Later in life, Kronfeld t ...
and
Rudolf Allers) the journal, now named the ''Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie''. In 1933 he became a board member of the renamed German Medical Society for Psychotherapy under
Matthias Heinrich Göring and from 1936 under this vice-director a board member of the
German Institute for Psychological Research and Psychotherapy (''Deutsches Institut für psychologische Forschung und Psychotherapie'') as well as director of the polyclinic.
Nazi Period
In 1933 he began research on his guidebook on sexual education, ''Geschlecht, Liebe, Ehe'', in which he focused on homosexuality and explored the topics of sterilization and euthanasia. In 1935 he published an essay titled ''Psychological consequences of sterilization and castration among men'', which supported compulsory sterilization of men in order to eliminate hereditary illnesses. Soon after he was appointed deputy director of the Göring Institute in Berlin, which was the headquarters of the Deutsches Institut für psychologische Forschung und Psychotherapie (German institute for psychological research and psychotherapy).
Through this institute, he had an active role in the extermination of mentally handicapped individuals in the framework of the
Aktion T4
(German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post- war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address o ...
program.
There he began to test many of his theories on homosexuality. Schultz strongly believed that homosexuality generally was not hereditary and that most homosexuals became so through perversion. He stated on numerous occasions that homosexuals displayed "scrubby and stunted
forms of personality development". Consequently, he also believed that homosexuality was curable through intense psychotherapy. During his time at the Göring Institute, 510 homosexuals were recorded to have received numerous psychotherapeutic treatments and 341
were deemed to be cured by the end of the treatments. Most of his subjects were convicted homosexuals brought in from concentration camps. After treating his patients, Schultz tested the treatments' effectiveness by forcing them to have sex with prostitutes. In a case study he later released, in which he briefly discussed the process of determining whether a young SS soldier, who had been sentenced to death for homosexual acts, was 'cured', Schultz stated: "Those who were considered incurable were sent back to the concentration camps, but 'cured' homosexuals, such as the previously mentioned SS soldier, were pardoned and released into military service". In this way Schultz actually saved numerous accused homosexuals from the hellish life of a concentration camp but he stated later that "successfully treated subjects were sent to the front, where they most probably were killed in action".
After the war, the Göring Institute was disbanded but Schultz faced no repercussions for his more dubious research and methods during the past decade. In fact he released a case study on his work with homosexuals in 1952 titled ''Organstörungen und Perversionen im Liebesleben'', in which he admitted to the inhumanity of some of his experiments but also still supported their results. In fact he continued to support his findings and even continued to advocate paragraph 175 for the rest of his life.
[https://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-102609-144251/unrestricted/PsychologyUndertheThirdReich.pdf ]
In 1956, he became editor of the journal ''Psychotherapie'', and in 1959 founder of the German Society for Medical Hypnosis (''Deutschen Gesellschaft für ärztliche Hypnose'').
Autogenic training
Schultz's most famous achievement was the development of
autogenic training
Autogenic training is a desensitization-relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Heinrich Schultz by which a psychophysiologically determined relaxation response is obtained. The technique was first published in 1932. St ...
, that was based on the hypnosis research and
self-experimentation
Self-experimentation refers to the special case of single-subject research in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on themselves.
Usually this means that a single person is the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporte ...
. It was first publicly put forward in 1926 as "autogenic organ exercises", and received its current name in 1928. The program consists of a set of six mental exercises that target specific bodily reactions that are believed to underpin body-mind health. It is a myth that autogenic training is a technique based on creative visualisations. Rather, it is a technique that revolves around a set of sub-vocal instructions to different parts of the body with the trainee simply observing in a completely non-striving way the changes in the way the body feels. It is a passive process, unlike creative visualisations, which rely upon a more active cognitive state. Today, because of Schultz' contribution to body-mind health, autogenic training is practiced worldwide. NASA teaches AT to their astronauts to help them with the psychophysiological stressors of space travel. In Australia, UK, Italy and Spain AT is taught to assist with problems such as stress, anxiety, depression, anger management, insomnia, fatigue and for difficulties with concentration, memory, decision making amongst other things. In Japan and Germany, medical practices teach AT to assist with the treatment of a wide range of medical complaints. The Autogenic Training Institute of Australia teaches AT for occupational health and safety and has become well known for its work with the mining, oil and gas industry as well as police.
Writings
* (1915) "Neue Wege und Ziele der Psychotherapie" ''Ther. Monatshefte'' 29, pp. 443–450 (habilitation thesis).
* (1919) "Die seelische Krankenbehandlung (Psychotherapie)." ''Ein Grundriß für Fach- und Allgemeinpraxis''. Jena: Fischer, seven editions. Stuttgart: Thieme, 1958.
* (1921) "Psychoanalyse und ihre Kritik." In: Adam, C. (ed.): ''Die Psychologie und ihre Bedeutung für die ärztliche Praxis.'' Eight editions. Jena: Fischer.
* (1925) "Schicksalsstunde der Psychotherapie." In: Moll, Albert (ed.): ''Abh. Gebiet. Psychother. med. Psychol. 1''.
* (1927) "Die Einigungsbestrebungen in der Psychotherapie." In: Eliasberg, Wladimir (ed.): ''Bericht über den I. Allgemeinen Kongreß für Psychotherapie in Baden-Baden. 17.-19. April 1926.'' Halle: Carl Marhold Verlagsbuchhandlung, pp. 241–252.
* (1932) "Das Autogene Training (konzentrative Selbstentspannung)." ''Versuch einer klinisch-praktischen Darstellung''. Leipzig: Thieme, many editions.
* (1935) "Hypnose-Technik." ''Praktische Anleitung zum Hypnotisieren für Ärzte''. Jena: Fischer.
* (1935) ''Ubungsheft fur das Autogene Training'' (konzentrative Selbstentspannung). Leipzig: Thieme, many editions.
* (1936) "Neurose Lebensnot ärztliche Pflicht." ''Klinische Vorlesungen über Psychotherapie für Ärzte und Studierende''. Leipzig: Thieme.
* (1940) "Geschlecht - Liebe - Ehe." ''Die Grundtatsachen des Liebes- und Geschlechtslebens in ihrer Bedeutung für Einzel- und Volksdasein''. Munich: Reinhardt, seven editions.
* (1941) ''Die seelische Gesunderhaltung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kriegsverhältnisse''. E.S. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin
* (1951) ''Bionome Psychotherapie.'' Stuttgart: Thiema.
* (1952) "Organstörungen und Perversionen im Liebesleben." ''Bedeutung, Entstehung, Behandlung, Verhütung''. Munich: Reinhardt.
* (1952) "Psychotherapie." ''Leben und Werk großer Ärzte''. Stuttgart: Hippokrates.
* (1955) "Grundfragen der Neurosenlehre." ''Aufbau und Sinn-Bild. Propädeutik einer medizinischen Psychologie''. Stuttgart: Thieme.
* (1964) ''Lebensbilderbuch eines Nervenarztes - Jahrzehnte in Dankbarkeit''. Stuttgart: Thieme, second edition 1971.
Notes
References
* Udo Busso Künzel, ''"Ich bin ganz ruhig": Psychoanalyse und Politik in den Publikationen des Begründers des Autogenen Trainings, Johannes Heinrich Schultz'', Frankfurt am Main, Univ., Diss., 1998
* Christian Meurer: ''Wunderwaffe Witzkanone. Heldentum von Heß bis Hendrix''. Oktober-Verlag, Münster 2006, (includes biographical essay on Schultz)
*
Eberhard J. Wormer. "Schultz, Johannes." ''Neue deutsche Biographie / herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften''. Vol. 23. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, p. 700f.
External links
*
Works by Schultzin the
German National Library
The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...
*
Critical articleby Maja Langsdorff in the ''
Stuttgarter Zeitung
The ''Stuttgarter Zeitung'' ("Stuttgart newspaper") is a German-language daily newspaper (except Sundays) edited in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with a run of about 200,000 sold copies daily.
History and profile
It was first edited ...
''
Schultzat www.whonamedit.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schultz, Johannes Heinrich
1884 births
1970 deaths
German psychiatrists
Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany
National Socialist Motor Corps members
Aktion T4 personnel