Edgar Michaelis

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Edgar Michaelis (born October 9, 1890 in Berlin ; † February 21, 1967 near Bern ) was a psychotherapist and neurologist who worked with a group of like-minded people to develop psychoanalysis into psychosynthesis . He grew up in a liberal Jewish family of the educated middle class and attended the French high school in Berlin.

Life

His uncle Simon introduced him to Berlin's writers in his “Academic-Literary Association”, which inspired Michaelis to do his own independent literary work. After graduating from high school, Michaelis studied medicine in Berlin. In 1913 his friend Hans Rosenberg gave him the "Lectures on Psychology" by Carus, first published in 1831 . This book, a well-known work of romantic psychology, combined his religious and political ideas in an idealistic worldview based on natural philosophy . After he had passed the state examination with "cum laude" , he applied in 1914 out of interest in experimental work as an assistant doctor at the Bacteriological Institute Berlin. No sooner had he started to work than this was closed after the outbreak of the First World War . As an assistant doctor at the Psychiatric University Clinic in Giessen, he looked after a ward with “nervous patients” and felt “very open and receptive”, was “immediately in an element and knew that (he) belonged there”. In 1916, under the direction of Professor Sommer, he wrote an experimental-psychological dissertation "On the knowledge of mental illnesses in war participants" . This work is remarkable in that it showed the courage to comment critically on the role of military psychiatrists. He contradicted the widespread view that psychological resilience has no influence on general military ability. He therefore took the view that not everyone has the appropriate mental constitution for military service, even if they are physically fit for duty. The actual, experimental part of the work consisted of a case report about a war-traumatized young man whom he had answered the same questionnaire every day for several weeks. Over the course of time, the answers showed that the psychotically ill soldier was slowly returning to reality. In 1916 he married Käthe Guttmann, whom he had met eight years earlier, presumably in the health resort of Wolfsgrund. He was sent to the Weiler'schen Anstalten near Berlin, then to Graudenz and finally to the Thorn fortress hospital . As a pacifist, he rejected the war and managed to postpone the draft as a civilian doctor until 1916. He did not want to bow to the military hierarchy and e.g. B. the greeting to his officer, knowing full well that he was facing a prison sentence. Despite repeated conflicts with his superiors, he carried out conversation psychotherapy with the war-traumatized soldiers according to his own concept. In 1917, however, he received the Hessian Military Merit Cross . Back in Berlin he immersed himself in the psychiatric literature for his personal training as a psychotherapist. In 1919 he established himself as a neurologist in his own practice in Berlin.

Teaching

In 1925 he published his best-known work "The human problematics of Freudian psychoanalysis" . The title addition "archetype and mask" alludes to ancient Greek theater , in which the actor hides behind a mask so that the audience cannot recognize the actor's true form and personality. Freud also hid behind the mask of his radical ideology, but he is actually a completely different “archetype”. Freud is not the pessimistic-realistic, emphatically objectively thinking and cold-feeling person he claims to be. Thus he expressed about Freud, the “'higher strivings' which are missing in the doctrine, where the 'essence of man was portrayed as instinctual and evil'; these higher strivings are the most hidden good at the bottom of the soul of their Creator can be shown (. ..) ". Behind the mask is a sensitive person who has been shaped by a disappointing father figure. Freud did a great job describing the human psyche . His doctrine should by no means be rejected as wrong, but in his opinion it needs to be supplemented by the idealistic side also present in Freud. In addition to emphasizing human instincts, the psychotherapist, pastor and educator should also consider striving for a positive attitude and the development of human beings' good dispositions and abilities. With this work Michaelis gained a reputation as a skilfully argued critic of Freud. Obviously, it was important to him not to let the voice of criticism of any one-sided psychological research, including behavior therapy , fall silent. According to Michaelis, people are not helplessly at the mercy of their instincts, but constantly try to find and develop their individual, positive talents. In order to enable people to do this, a suitable education and promotion of their talents are required. Michaelis' work was received positively by friends of the religious socialists and supporters of the "Doctor and Educator" movement. Martin Buber, Ricarda Huch , Thomas Mann , Paul Häberlin , Hermann Graf von Keyserling and others kindly congratulated him on his first work. This resulted in numerous new contacts and friendships such as the one with Alphonse Maeder, a Swiss psychotherapist and former Freud student. This in turn introduced him to other members and guests of the Psychological Club in Zurich such as Hans Trüb and Constantin von Monakow .

Michaelis as a critic of the Frankfurter Zeitung from 1923 to 1932

In addition to his lectures on the much-discussed social issues such as the position of women and sexuality in marriage, he regularly published literary reviews of the new publications in psychology in the Frankfurter Zeitung . Here is an example from 1923: “Compared to the doctrine of the so-called reality principle, according to which the doctor as a representative of society must lead the neurotic to adapt, it is emphasized that the doctor must not only be a representative of the outside world, but also of the inside world if he wants to heal. While, according to Schilder, the ego instincts have a destructive, destructive character, Prof. Goldstein has thankfully shown that life as such contains the striving for development and growth. The concepts of ideal and love, which also use shields, go far beyond a mere doctrine of instincts. It is a step forward that the problem of the ideal is now at least more and more discussed. In this direction there are questions on which the fate of psychotherapy internally depends. ” (Frankfurter Zeitung, Edgar Michaelis 1923)

“It is precisely the advance from symptomatic therapy to ultimate questions of worldview that gives research into psychological healing methods general cultural significance. The more the responsibility arises not to stop prematurely, but to really look for final decisions beyond the existing approaches so that psychotherapy can increasingly do justice to the great task in which it participates: to fight the hardship of life and the inner one Help fulfill the purpose of human beings. ” A dogma like Freudian psychoanalysis was seen as an obstacle to the free development of the still young therapy. Regarding the dispute within the profession, he remarked: “It is indeed the peculiar tension of the task that psychotherapy was faced with, that in a time of loosening all ties for inner turmoil and distress, new places of help and guidance from fearful isolation had to form, although in general the whole of life threatened to disappear from view. This is how religious struggles arose over psychoanalysis, and it could happen that all human values ​​were viewed from this point of view and measured against it (...). ” For Michaelis, this debate about the ideal was decisive for the future of psychotherapy and therefore increasing Numbers of psychiatric patients are also a social issue. In his reviews he tirelessly tried to convey the core message that the further development of psychotherapy could make a contribution to overcoming the spiritual and psychosocial crisis of the whole of society and should therefore in no way be hindered. Idealism sees itself as an antagonist to realism, which believed to have found the only scientific direction in psychotherapy with psychoanalysis.

The psychotherapeutic work of Edgar Michaelis

In 1933 the couple began a period of church engagement in the resistance against Hitler . The correspondence proves contacts to leading actors of the church opposition against the German Christians and thus against the National Socialist regime. The correspondence in Michaelis' estate shows that he knew Martin Niemöller , Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Gerhard Jakobi well. An invitation card to a synod on March 7, 1934 in Berlin-Dahlem is a mystery. Presumably it was a preparatory event for the coming larger meetings of church oppositionists. Michaelis was thus an active participant in the struggle for the Protestant Church's confession against the increasing power of the National Socialists. From January 3rd and 4th, 1934, the Free Reformed Synod was formed in various German cities. Especially in Wuppertal - Barmen and Dahlem the parishes came together for the Confessional Synod. From May 29 to 31, 1934, the Barmen Theological Declaration was adopted as the foundation of the Confessing Church . The second Synod of Confessions from October 19-20, 1934 in Berlin-Dahlem also became known. It was there that Dahlem's church emergency law was passed. Michaeli's participation there is not proven. When the National Socialists came to power, Michaelis' career as an author came to an end, as publishing became more and more difficult for Jews and was finally banned altogether. In 1930 Michaelis gave the lecture “Gender and Soul” in 1930 to the working group “Doctor and Pastor” in Berlin's Johannesstift, and in 1934 the lecture “The seriousness of medical pastoral care before God” , in which he professed medical pastoral care based on Luther's example . This last meeting became particularly explosive because of the fact that he clearly criticized the basic ideas of the National Socialists. He contradicted the sentence “You are nothing, your people is everything” in a way that only becomes apparent at second glance: He compared the devastating consequences of an unreflective practice of religion towards God with those of an unreflective allegiance to the ideology of National Socialism. It is fatal to follow a religion (or an ideology) that venerates people (or the so-called “master people”). Only God alone should be at the center of life, not the individual person and not a specific people. According to the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935, Michaelis was considered a “full Jew”, but since March 7, 1933 he had the “front fighter privilege”. Many of his Jewish patients emigrated or were arrested by the National Socialists. In 1938, the announcement that all Jewish doctors would withdraw their license to practice medicine caused Michaelis to become again exhausted. After a stay at the Fürstenberg sanatorium near Potsdam, the Michaelis couple stayed in a private guesthouse in Graudenz for a while. There he was arrested on the evening of the Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938 without giving any reason and transported to the Strehlitz camp near Berlin. His wife tried to get him out with a medical certificate of incapacity. After three weeks, thanks to the intercession of some of his friends, he was released. After his release from custody, he soon returned to his everyday life after the initial shock. In doing so, he continued to ignore the danger that he and his wife were in and almost missed the last chance to emigrate . It was not until the end of 1939, when the couple was asked to move into a “Jewish house”, that Michaelis gave in to the insistence of his wife and friends, including Pastor Link, and agreed to flee. Thanks to good connections to Switzerland, they managed to flee to Lausanne via Basel on December 28, 1939 . At that time, refugees in Switzerland did not receive a work permit, so that Michaelis was unable to earn a living as a doctor or psychotherapist. The Maeder couple, who had been friends with the Michaelis for years, supported them as best they could. In 1947 Maeder Michaelis arranged a three-month internship at the La Rochelle psychiatric clinic in Vaumarcus near Neuchatel in the hope that he would be offered a job. This thought was obvious, but Michaelis had not dealt with institutional psychiatry since the First World War and had never felt the desire to work there again. The prospect of working as a deputy head physician did not appeal to him either, as he had neither experience nor interest in administrative tasks. The relationship cooled significantly when Maeder had to realize that Michaelis had few opportunities to return to his earlier activities as a psychotherapist, freelance writer and literary critic. As a baptized Jewish refugee, he was tolerated in Switzerland, but he could no longer connect with the intellectual circles in which he had moved in Berlin in the 1920s. The war had robbed him of the foundations of his career at the time. Michaelis felt mentally isolated, which put a lot of strain on him. Thanks to the intercession of Prof. Steck, head of the Cery Clinic, Michaelis received permission in 1950 to conduct psychological consultations without medical work. In the following year he received the permanent residence permit for his own consulting practice. In August 1960 he was appointed a corresponding member of the society for his contribution to the development of psychotherapy by the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl , the president of the Austrian Medical Association founded by Frankl himself. In 1961 the two met at the International Congress for Psychotherapy in Vienna . Käthe Michaelis died on April 18, 1960 of a heart disease that had lasted for about two years. The loss of his wife, who always looked after him and also saved him a few times from dangerous situations, made him sink into grief. Several times he took part in the Rencontre de Genève, an annual congress of theologians, philosophers and writers in Geneva. In 1962 Michaelis, who was now 72 years old, was diagnosed with leukemia , from which he died on February 21, 1967.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Michaelis, Edgar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Psychotherapist and neurologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1967
Place of death near Bern