Andreas Maercker

Andreas Maercker (born April 26, 1960 in Halle / Saale ) is a professor of psychology at the University of Zurich .

education

Andreas Maercker studied medicine and psychology. In 1986 he received his doctorate in medicine from the Humboldt University in Berlin with the thesis "Cognitive processes, stress and the neuropeptide substance P" with the pathophysiologist Karl Hecht . He also had philosophy lessons with Wolfgang Harich in the 1980s . In 1995 he received his doctorate from the Free University of Berlin Dr. phil. with the work "Existential Confrontation: An Investigation within the Framework of a Psychological Wisdom Paradigm" by the psychologist Paul B. Baltes .

Act

With his working groups at the universities of Dresden until 2001 and Zurich, he investigated a. a. Victims of political violence (e.g. former political prisoners in the GDR: 1995, 2008), war victims (e.g. Dresden bombing night victims), crime victims (in Germany and China) and former Swiss contract children . Together with co-authors, he developed psychological measurement methods for protective factors in trauma processing : "Disclosure of trauma experiences (Disclosure)" and "Social recognition as a trauma victim or survivor".

His PTSD research focuses on social and interpersonal factors which, according to him, decide more than biological factors or memory changes whether an affected person develops a post-traumatic stress disorder (“social-interpersonal perspective”). The supplementary "Janus head model of post-traumatic maturation " (together with Tanja Zöllner) refers to the fact that many survivors describe that surviving the traumatic experiences changed them in a positive way, e.g. B. that they experience a stronger bond with loved ones and they now value life more.

PTSD research was increasingly oriented towards cross-cultural studies. Maercker includes individual values according to the theory of S. Schwartz , whereby it was shown that modern values (e.g. self-determination, striving for achievement, hedonism) contribute to psychological resilience , while traditional values (e.g. goodness, conformity, influence ) provide more social support and mental health. For this purpose, studies were carried out in a European comparison, in the German Federal Armed Forces (after deployments abroad) and in a comparison between Switzerland and China; an online self-help program has also been developed for China.

As part of international cooperation under the umbrella of the WHO , he was instrumental in formulating new diagnoses in the field of psychological trauma and stress disorders: complex post-traumatic stress disorder and persistent grief disorder . Both are differentiations of post-traumatic stress disorder , which differ from this due to the partly different symptoms as well as different topics and techniques in psychotherapeutic treatment. His working group provided the first frequency ( prevalence ) calculation of these two new disorders in the German population.

The research program in the age sector (together with Simon Forstmeier) examines the “motivational reserve capacity” of older people, which is based on the formation of resources in the history of life and learning and which is assumed to be e.g. B. can temporarily compensate for a dementia-related decline in intelligence and general skills. A study with former contract children showed that, in contrast, they have an increased risk of dementia-related impairment of ability. a. is explained with a trauma-related impaired motivational reserve capacity.

Memberships and honors

Maercker was a founding member and former chairman of the German-speaking Society for Psychotraumatology (DeGPT) as well as co-founder and editor of the journal “Trauma and Violence” (Klett-Cotta). Since 2011 he has headed the international working group of the World Health Organization for the revision of the disease classification (ICD-10/11) for "stress and trauma-related diseases". Since 2018 he has been a member of the scientific advisory board of the Lindau Psychotherapy Weeks .

In 2004 he was awarded the Margrit Egnér Foundation Prize for his work in psychotraumatology. In 2017, in recognition of his scientific and voluntary contributions to psychotraumatology and the clinical care of trauma sufferers, he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon, presented by the German Ambassador Otto Lampe . In 2017 he received the “Wolter de Loos Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychotraumatology in Europe” from the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies for his scientific work. He was a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in the academic year 2018-19.

Maercker is chairman of the historical commission of the German Society for Psychology for the "Instrumentalization of Psychology in the GDR", which deals in particular with operative psychology at the Potsdam-Golm University of the Ministry for State Security.

Others

Andreas Maercker is married to the art historian Franz-Carl Diegelmann and has a grown son.

Fonts

Sequelae. 5th edition. Springer, Heidelberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-662-58469-9 .
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Lifespan Developmental Perspective. , with Matthias Schützwohl, Zahava Solomon (Eds.), Hogrefe & Huber, Seattle 2008, ISBN 978-0-88937-187-3 .
Manual of Psychotraumatology. with Günter H. Seidler, Harald J. Freyberger (Eds.), Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-60894-665-9 .
Clinical Psychology - Basics, 2nd edition with Franz Petermann , Wolfgang Lutz, Ulrich Stangier, Hogrefe, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-80172-783-3 .
The life review in therapy and counseling. with Simon Forstmeier (ed.), Springer, Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-28198-3 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-642-28199-0 .
Trauma and secondary trauma disorders. Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-69850-7 .
Cultural clinical psychology and PTSD. with Eva Heim, Laurence J. Kirmayer (eds.), Hogrefe, Boston 2019, ISBN 978-0-889-37497-3 .

Web links

Literature by and about Andreas Maercker in the catalog of the German National Library
Website of the chair at the University of Zurich
Andreas Maercker's private website
Lecture archive by Andreas Maercker as part of the Lindau Psychotherapy Weeks (pdf)

Individual evidence

↑ A. Maercker: Encounters with Harich. In: Journal for the history of ideas. 13 (4), 2019, pp. 11-14.
↑ J. Müller, A. Beauducel, J. Raschka and A. Maercker: Communication behavior after political imprisonment in the GDR - development of a questionnaire to reveal trauma experiences. In: Journal for Political Psychology. Volume 8, 2000, pp. 413-427.
^ A. Maercker and J. Müller: Social acknowledgment as a victim or survivor: A scale to measure a recovery factor of PTSD. In: Journal of Traumatic Stress. Volume 17, 2004, pp. 345-351.
^ A. Maercker and AB Horn: A socio-interpersonal perspective on PTSD: The case for environments and interpersonal processes In: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. 2012, doi : 10.1002 / cpp.1805 .
^ A. Maercker and T. Zöllner: The Janus face of posttraumatic growth: Towards a two component model of posttraumatic growth. In: Psychological Inquiry. Volume 15, 2004, pp. 41-48.
^ Z. Wang et al .: Chinese My Trauma Recovery, a Web-based intervention for traumatized persons in two parallel samples: randomized controlled trial. In: Journal of Medical Internet Research Volume 15, 2013, e213. doi : 10.2196 / jmir.2690 .
^ A. Maercker, CR Brewin, RA Bryant et al .: Proposals for mental disorders specifically associated with stress in the International Classification of Diseases-11. In: Lancet. Volume 381, 2013, P1683-1685.
↑ A. Maercker et al .: ICD-11 Prevalence Rates of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a German Nationwide Sample. In: Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Volume 2016, 2018, P270-276. doi : 10.1097 / NMD.0000000000000790 .
↑ S. Forstmeier and A. Maercker: Motivational reserve: Lifetime motivational abilities contribute to cognitive and emotional health in old age. In: Psychology and Aging. Volume 23, 2008, pp. 886-899.
^ Federal Order of Merit for Andreas Maercker. Announcement of February 2, 2017 on the website of the German Society for Psychology, accessed on February 27, 2018
↑ ESTSS Awards at the 15th ESTSS Conference 2017 in Odense, Denmark. Retrieved August 17, 2017 (American English).
^ A. Maercker and S. Guski-Autovermietung: Psychologists' involvement in repressive “Stasi” secret police activities in former East Germany . In: Intern. Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation . tape 7 , no. 2 , p. 107-119 .

personal data
SURNAME	Maercker, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German university professor and psychologist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 26, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH	Halle (Saale)

[1] A. Maercker: Encounters with Harich. In: Journal for the history of ideas. 13 (4), 2019, pp. 11-14.

[2] J. Müller, A. Beauducel, J. Raschka and A. Maercker: Communication behavior after political imprisonment in the GDR - development of a questionnaire to reveal trauma experiences. In: Journal for Political Psychology. Volume 8, 2000, pp. 413-427.

[3] A. Maercker and J. Müller: Social acknowledgment as a victim or survivor: A scale to measure a recovery factor of PTSD. In: Journal of Traumatic Stress. Volume 17, 2004, pp. 345-351.

[4] A. Maercker and AB Horn: A socio-interpersonal perspective on PTSD: The case for environments and interpersonal processes In: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. 2012, doi : 10.1002 / cpp.1805 .

[5] A. Maercker and T. Zöllner: The Janus face of posttraumatic growth: Towards a two component model of posttraumatic growth. In: Psychological Inquiry. Volume 15, 2004, pp. 41-48.

[6] Z. Wang et al .: Chinese My Trauma Recovery, a Web-based intervention for traumatized persons in two parallel samples: randomized controlled trial. In: Journal of Medical Internet Research Volume 15, 2013, e213. doi : 10.2196 / jmir.2690 .

[7] A. Maercker, CR Brewin, RA Bryant et al .: Proposals for mental disorders specifically associated with stress in the International Classification of Diseases-11. In: Lancet. Volume 381, 2013, P1683-1685.

[8] A. Maercker et al .: ICD-11 Prevalence Rates of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a German Nationwide Sample. In: Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Volume 2016, 2018, P270-276. doi : 10.1097 / NMD.0000000000000790 .

[9] S. Forstmeier and A. Maercker: Motivational reserve: Lifetime motivational abilities contribute to cognitive and emotional health in old age. In: Psychology and Aging. Volume 23, 2008, pp. 886-899.

[10] Federal Order of Merit for Andreas Maercker. Announcement of February 2, 2017 on the website of the German Society for Psychology, accessed on February 27, 2018

[11] ESTSS Awards at the 15th ESTSS Conference 2017 in Odense, Denmark. Retrieved August 17, 2017 (American English).

[12] A. Maercker and S. Guski-Autovermietung: Psychologists' involvement in repressive “Stasi” secret police activities in former East Germany . In: Intern. Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation . tape 7 , no. 2 , p. 107-119 .