August Ruhs

August Ruhs (* 1946 in Graz ) is an Austrian psychiatrist , psychoanalyst , group psychoanalyst and psychodramatist who teaches at the University of Vienna , the Medical University of Vienna , the Vienna Psychoanalytical Academy and the Vienna Working Group for Psychoanalysis .

biography

August Ruhs studied medicine and psychology in Graz and was a scholarship holder at the “Menninger Foundation / School of Psychiatry” in Topeka, USA (1969) and at the “Clinique Universitaire Sainte-Anne” in Paris (1969–1970).

After completing his medical degree, he began training as a specialist in psychiatry and neurology at the University of Graz Neurological Clinic and completed training in psychoanalysis as well as in psychodrama and group psychoanalysis. 1976 - 1979 he was an assistant doctor at the “Hardtwaldklinik II for psychogenic diseases” in Bad Zwesten (Germany), where he acquired the additional qualification “Psychotherapy” from the German Medical Association and the diploma “Psychodrama Teaching Therapist” from the Moreno Institute in Überlingen. From 1979 he worked as a therapist in the psychotherapeutic outpatient clinic of the Vienna Regional Health Insurance Fund and in 1983 joined the Vienna University Clinic for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (then the Institute for Depth Psychology and Psychotherapy at the University of Vienna ). Until 2010 he held the function of the deputy board member and from 2010 to 2011 the function of interim manager.

In 1980 he opened a private psychoanalytical-psychotherapeutic practice, was head of the psychodrama section in the Austrian Working Group for Group Therapy and Group Dynamics ( ÖAGG ) from 1984 to 1986 , became a training analyst in the Vienna Working Group for Psychoanalysis in 1990 and headed the group psychoanalysis section at the ÖAGG from 1991 to 1993. Since 2007 he has been chairman of the Vienna Working Group for Psychoanalysis (IPV).

Ruhs is a co-founder of the New Vienna Group / Lacan School , a founding member of the International Association for Freudian Psychoanalysis (AFP) and co-founder of the Depth Psychology / Psychoanalytic Umbrella Society. From 1999 to 2003 and again since 2013 board member of the Vienna Sigmund Freud Society. Since 2007 he has been head of the Department of Theory, History and Culture at the “Vienna Psychoanalytical Academy” together with Elisabeth Skale. Here he set up two-year courses in “ Structural Psychoanalysis ( Lacan et al.)” And the series of events “Psynema - Psychoanalysis, Film, Cinema” in cooperation with “Synema - Society for Film and Media”. August Ruhs has also been running a psychosocial counseling center for students at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna since 2007. Since 1992 he has been co-editor of the magazine “texte. psychoanalysis. aesthetics. Kulturkritik “(Passagen Verlag). His numerous publications and books come from the areas of clinical, theoretical and applied psychoanalysis with special consideration of art and film analyzes as well as conceptions of cultural theory.

plant

In his endeavor to turn to psychiatry after studying medicine, Ruhs came into closer contact with psychoanalysis and especially with the structural psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan through his two stays abroad in the USA and France. With regard to the latter, he endeavored from 1980 to get it received and disseminated in German-speaking countries and especially in Austria. The International Seminar: "Psychoanalysis and Structuralism - Freud and Lacan", which August Ruhs held together with the philosophers Andreas Pribersky , Leonhard Schmeiser and Walter Seitter in 1986 and 1987 at the Vienna Institut francais and at the Institute for Science and Art (IWK) also served this purpose. organized. In the total of eleven weekend seminars with lectures, discussions and workshops, the most important representatives of both the French and German-speaking Lacan schools had their say as guests.

In this context, and inspired by Jacques-Alain Miller, August Ruhs and Walter Seitter founded the Neue Wiener Gruppe / Lacan School in November 1989 with its two sections “Aesthetics” and “Clinic”, to which the “Logic” section was added in 2010. In this context, numerous symposia and workshops with international participation took place after the opening seminar. The conception and planning of the 2001 event series “100 Years of Jacques Lacan” with two exhibitions (“This side and the other side of the dream”, Charim Gallery Vienna and Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna; co-curator Brigitte Huck) and two symposia deserves special mention (“Passages à l'acte - Ans Werk!” And “Paris-Vienna-Paris / Freud and Lacan”) and the film week “Voilà du propre - Women clean up” (Filmhaus am Spittelberg, Vienna).

Clearly based on the teachings of Freud and Lacan, Ruhs' work in the psychoanalytic field is based on efforts to maintain the balance between clinical, theoretical and applied psychoanalysis on the one hand, and the indissoluble links and interdependencies between the therapeutic, cultural-theoretical and socio-critical dimensions on the other Psychoanalysis to take into account. In the endeavor to promote psychoanalytic ideas and in particular the German-speaking Lacan reception at various levels of communication, the concern to always consider clinically and psychiatrically relevant questions in the context of social and political orientations and renegotiations becomes clear. Their connections with art and especially fine arts on the levels of aesthetics, unconscious motivational contexts, production conditions and questions of reception are expressed in numerous traditional and digital publications.

The questioning of rigid demarcations is also the basis for the determination of Freud's teaching as a theory of relativity in the field of the sciences of the unconscious, as strongly advocated by Ruhs: relativity with regard to the categories of normality and pathology, relativity with regard to the boundaries between past, present and future, relativity with regard to the opposition between the individual and society. However, the independence of psychoanalysis as a specific discipline is also emphasized and defended against tendencies to be taken over by other sciences and paradigms such as neurosciences.

The anchoring in psychoanalytic practice and theory also determines the activity of Ruhs in the field of psychodrama . From around 1980 he worked for several years with numerous therapy and training groups to develop an independent form of psychoanalytically oriented psychodrama, which eventually developed into a small school under the name Vienna Model of Psychodramatic Group Analysis ("Center for Analytical Psychodrama Vienna").

Professional policy

As chairman of the depth psychological / psychoanalytic umbrella company, August Ruhs campaigned for the recognition of psychoanalysis and the related psychotherapy procedures as an independent health insurance benefit from 1996 onwards. In fact, there was an agreement with Austrian health insurance companies until 2012, whereby long-term and high-frequency treatments were partially or fully remunerated.

In order to anchor psychoanalysis in Vienna more firmly at the university, August Ruhs and a group of psychoanalysts and philosophers tried to set up two extension curricula for psychoanalysis at the University of Vienna, which are open to all Bachelor students and should cover part of their studies. The first part of this facility, which has existed since 2008, is regularly one of the three most frequently chosen courses from a number of over 80 extension curricula.

Awards

• 2017: Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class
• 2018: Gold Medal of Honor for Services to the State of Vienna

Web links

• Literature by and about August Ruhs in the catalog of the German National Library
• Publications by August Ruhs (selection)
• New Vienna Group / Lacan School
• Short biography of August Ruhs on the knowledge platform for psychoanalysis

Individual evidence

1. ^ Philosophical audio library. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
2. ^ Psychoanalysis and constructions of masculinity. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
3. ^ Possibilities and limits of psychoanalytic psychosis treatment. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Transact Statement: I always tell the truth. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
5. ↑ The identification with the image. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; Retrieved July 24, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Farewell to the mission statement. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; Retrieved July 24, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ The Viennese slope to the garland. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
8. ↑ The Standard Talk: Art and Psychoanalysis. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
9. ↑ body treatments. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 24, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ Back To The Roots or instructions for proper root treatment. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
11. ↑ Psychology of Design. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Art, Philosophy and Digestion. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved July 24, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ Impossibility of reality. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
14. ↑ Everyone needs special therapy. Retrieved July 24, 2015 . 
15. ^ Austrian Cross of Honor for August Ruhs - BKA photo service. Retrieved January 15, 2018 . 
16. ↑ August Ruhs and Hans Rauscher honored with Golden Vienna Awards . In: OTS.at . ( ots.at [accessed January 15, 2018]).