Johann Gottfried Langermann

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Johann Gottfried Langermann

Johann Gottfried Langermann (born August 8, 1768 in Maxen near Dresden , † September 5, 1832 in Berlin ) was a German midwifery teacher , psychiatrist and reforming Prussian State Councilor. He was called “Germany's first psychiatrist” and “protagonist of ethical psychiatry”. In Bayreuth he set up the first modern psychiatric sanatorium in Germany.

Life

Langermann attended the Kreuzschule in Dresden . As a farmer's son he studied law and theology from 1789 with the help of a patron at the Saxon court at the University of Leipzig . There he called for university reforms and for this reason, forced by the administration, had to change universities.

At times he worked as a private tutor at Kaufmann Röder in Leipzig. Through Johann Gottlieb Fichte he came to philosophy at the University of Jena in 1794 , and through the royal Prussian court doctor Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland to medicine. Here he taught Novalis (alias: Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg) and established personal relationships with Goethe , Schiller and Haydn . In 1797 he wrote a dissertation on the subject of contemporary psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. In the same year he received his doctorate at the University of Leipzig and then opened a practice in Bayreuth . Afterwards he was a doctor in the sanctuary and madhouse in Torgau , but returned from there to Bayreuth.

In 1804 Langermann submitted the plan requested by Karl August von Hardenberg (1750–1822) in 1803 "regarding the changes in the Bayreuth madhouse". In February 1805, Hardenberg agreed to most points in an order sent to the Bayreuth Chamber of Langermann. From 1805 onwards, as director of the St. Georgen maternity and insane asylum near Bayreuth, he transformed the insane asylum into an exemplary "psychological sanatorium for the insane". There he freed the sick from their chains. Nevertheless, his “moral” treatment principles were characterized by the greatest rigor and, if necessary, allowed punishment, red-hot iron and other tortures.

When Bayreuth was ceded to Bavaria in 1810, Langermann left the institution, which enjoyed a widespread reputation, and moved to Berlin. Karl August von Hardenberg accepted Langermann into the medical college here. He valued him and his legal knowledge. He was employed as a State Councilor in the Ministry of the Interior. In 1819 he entered the college of censors. In the same year he was entrusted with the reorganization and management of the veterinary school, which had been established in 1789. At his death he was head of the entire Prussian medical system. "Atheromatosis" is reported as the cause of death.

Services

Langermann's dissertation De methodo cognoscendi curandique animi morbos stabilienda . (1797) contains in the introduction large excerpts from the theory of animism by Georg Ernst Stahl (1660–1734), a theory that Langermann agreed without reservation. With him it is certainly an expression of German idealism. The teaching of Stahl was only accepted with reservations abroad, cf. also psychodynamism . The dissertation also contains treatises on moral treatment . This dissertation remained Langermann's only psychiatric work.

Langermann published a text by August Friedrich Schweigger, "On hospitals and poor institutions in Paris 1808", and provided it with additions. A work on yellow fever is dedicated to Freiherr vom Stein (1757–1831).

Langermann is counted among the well-known representatives of psychics . He founded the psychiatric institutions Siegburg (1820, opened 1825) and Leubus (1830) in Silesia. It is one of Langermann's merits to have put into practice the predominantly theoretical conceptions of Romantic Medicine about the nature of mental illness. On January 1, 1811, he was elected a member ( matriculation no. 1038a ) of the Leopoldina .

Publications (selection)

  • De method cognoscendi curandique animi morbos stabilienda . 1797. (Dissertation).
  • Report of the Medicinal Council Dr. Langermann, concerning the changes in the Bayreuth madhouse. Bayreuth, (May 28) 1804.
  • About the current state of psychological healing methods for mental illnesses and about the first psychiatric sanatorium built in Bayreuth. In: Medical-surgical newspaper. Volume 4, 1805, pp. 90-93.
  • As editor of: August Friedrich Schweigger . Via sick and poor institutions in Paris. JA Lübeck, Bayreuth 1809. Therein p. 153 ff. Commentary on the French hospice at Charenton (digitized version) .

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Peters, Uwe Henrik : Dictionary of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich 3 1984; Dictionary stw. "Langermann, Johann Gottfried": (a) on "Lebensdaten": p. 326 (b) on "Conversion of the Bayreuth Institution": p. 326; (c) on "Psychic Representative": p. 326.
  2. a b c d e f g h i j k Bandorf, Melchior Josef:  Langermann, Johann Gottfried . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 682 f.
  3. ^ Paul Diepgen : History of Medicine. The historical development of medicine and medical life. Volume I-II / 2. Berlin / New York 1949–1955, Volume II / 1, p. 59.
  4. ^ Klaus Dörner : Citizens and Irre. On the social history and sociology of science in psychiatry. 2nd edition Frankfurt am Main 1984, p. 230.
  5. Dieter Jetter: Principles of the history of the madhouse. Darmstadt 1981, pp. 119-122.
  6. a b c d e f g h Klaus Dörner : Citizens and Irre. On the social history and sociology of science in psychiatry. Fischer Taschenbuch, Bücher des Wissens, Frankfurt am Main 1969, 1975, ISBN 3-436-02101-6 . (a) Re. “Studies in Leipzig”: p. 243; (b) Re. “Fichte, Hufeland, Novalis”: p. 243; (cd) on tax authority “KA von Hardenberg”: p. 244 f .; (e) Re. “moral-pedagogical rigorism”: p. 244; (fg) on ​​residence “Langermann in Berlin”: p. 243; (h) on district “work on yellow fever”: p. 243.
  7. ^ Johann Gottfried Langermann: De methodo cognoscendi curandique animi morbos stabilienda. Medical dissertation, Jena 1797.
  8. a b c Rudolf Degkwitz u. a. (Ed.): Mentally ill. Introduction to Psychiatry for Clinical Study. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-541-09911-9 . - (a) Re. “Doctorate and practice opening”: p. 471 b ; (b) Re. “Langermann as a representative of psychics”: page 451 a ; (c) to district “Establishments”: p. 472 a .
  9. a b Ackerknecht, Erwin H .: Brief history of psychiatry . Enke, Stuttgart 3 1985, ISBN 3-432-80043-6 ; (a) Re. “Liberation”: page 34 f .; (b) Re. “Classification in the history of ideas”: pp. 36, 39.

literature

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