Johann August Unzer

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Johann August Unzer (born April 29, 1727 in Halle , † April 2, 1799 in Altona ) was a German doctor, editor of a medical weekly and early author of medical psychological publications.

Frontispiece - portrait from 1764 after a painting by Johann Jacob Tischbein

Life

Unzer came from a medical family; his older brother was the Graflich Stolberg-Wernigerödische personal physician and councilor Johann Christoph Unzer , the father of the doctor of the same name and novelist Johann Christoph Unzer. Johann August Unzer studied medicine at the University of Halle and was awarded a doctorate on September 9, 1748. med. PhD. His doctoral thesis, written in 1743, was a treatise on sneezing (Latin title of the work: De sternutatione ), in 1750 he settled as a general practitioner in Hamburg, but soon moved to neighboring Altona. He lived there until his death in 1799. He turned down offers to be appointed professor in Copenhagen or Göttingen.

Since 1751 he was with the poet and philosopher Johanna Charlotte Unzer , geb. Ziegler married. His house was a center of Altona society. Here his wife performed anacreontic songs.

Services

plant

Unzer was best known as the editor of the weekly Der Arzt . It also appeared in a twelve-volume book form from 1759 to 1764, which was reprinted in 1778. The weekly has been translated into Dutch, Swedish and Danish. He also wrote a three-volume medical manual . First published in 1770, it experienced its 5th edition in 1794. He also edited a number of psychological writings; He also published a collection of small physical writings in two parts in 1766, collections on speculative philosophy in 1767, and poetic writings.

Medical historical appreciation

Unzer was of the opinion that every part of a nerve, and not just the muscle, is irritable. He thus contributed to the further development of the sensualistic theories of the nervous system, as they were originally developed by Georg Ernst Stahl , Friedrich Hoffmann and Albrecht von Haller and then received general attention in England and France. Unzer was one of a number of enlightened and free-spirited German doctors who were not inferior to their colleagues in Western countries in terms of theoretical knowledge. However, since the Enlightenment and its ancient traditions were relatively little widespread in Germany, Klaus Dörner believes that his work found comparatively little response here. They received greater attention from English clinicians such as Robert Whytt and William Cullen, and from the Montpellier school . Another contemporary theoretician of neurophysiology is Georg Prochaska (1749–1820), who already generalized this neurophysiological knowledge in terms of life and nerve power in natural philosophy. Unzer was received posthumously by Wilhelm Griesinger , who in his work on the psychological reflex arc a. a. refers to Unzer and Reil . Here, ideas of harmony or parallels between the brain and spinal cord as different sections of the nervous system are at the fore, see also the medical-historical concept of sympathy .

Works

Title page of the thoughts on the influence of the soul in its body (1746)
Book edition with contributions by Johann August Unzer, Georg Prochaska (1749–1820) and Thomas Laycock (1812–1876)

editor

  • The doctor. A medical weekly journal. 12 volumes. Hamburg u. a. 1760-1764. ZDB ID 2748492-0
Digital copies of the Bavarian State Library

literature

  • Carsten Erich Carstens :  Unzer, Johann August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 39, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1895, p. 331.
  • Stefan Bilger: Bad digestion and badness of the heart: Hypochondria in Johann August Unzer (1727–1799). Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 1990, ISBN 3-88479-411-6 (dissertation, University of Heidelberg, 1987).
  • Matthias Reiber: Anatomy of a bestseller. Johann August Unzer's weekly “The Doctor” (1759–1764). Wallstein, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 978-3-89244-349-0 ( reviews ).
    • Gernot Huppmann: Anatomy of a bestseller. Johann Unzer's weekly “The Doctor” (1759–1764) - a review essay submitted later - In: Würzburger medical historical reports 23, 2004, pp. 539–555.
  • Stefan Wesselmann: Age and "dementia" in the discourse of the mid-18th century: Johann August Unzer and his environment. 2014 (Dissertation, University of Heidelberg, 2014; online ).

Web links

Wikisource: Johann August Unzer  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Johann August Unzer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiversity: Unzer, Johann August (1746)  - course materials

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b c d Carsten Erich Carstens:  Unzer, Johann August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 39, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1895, p. 331.
  2. ^ Eduard Jacobs :  Unzer, Johann Christoph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 39, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1895, p. 334 f.
  3. ↑ Bilger (Lit.), p. 49, note 11 points out that the older statement that he was a professor at the University of Rinteln does not apply.
  4. ^ A b Klaus Dörner : Citizens and Irre . On the social history and sociology of science in psychiatry. (1969) Fischer Taschenbuch, Bücher des Wissens, Frankfurt / M. 1975, ISBN 3-436-02101-6 ; (a) on the district “Leben in Altona”: p. 203; (b) on taxation “medical historical appreciation”: pp. 202 ff., 207, 322
  5. ^ Wilhelm Griesinger: About psychological reflexions . In: Treatises . Vol. I, page 4
  6. ↑ Karl Jaspers : General Psychopathology . Springer, Berlin 9 1973, ISBN 3-540-03340-8 ; on the district “psychic reflex arc”: pp. 130 ff., 133 ff., 150 f., 156
personal data
SURNAME Unzer, Johann August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1727
PLACE OF BIRTH Hall
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1799
Place of death Altona