Manfred Spitzer

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Manfred Spitzer (2018)

Manfred Spitzer (born May 27, 1958 in Lengfeld near Darmstadt ) is a German neuroscientist and psychiatrist . He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Ulm, since 1998 he has been the Medical Director of the Psychiatric University Clinic in Ulm , where he is also the overall director of the Transfer Center for Neurosciences and Learning (ZNL), which opened there in 2004 and mainly deals with neurodidactics .

Life

After graduating from the Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Groß-Umstadt , Manfred Spitzer studied medicine , philosophy and psychology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg . During this time he earned his living u. a. as a street musician. His son Thomas Spitzer , who is a successful comedian, has now followed in these footsteps . Manfred Spitzer earned a diploma in psychology, then he did his doctorate in medicine (1983) and philosophy (1985) and qualified as a professor in 1989 for the subject psychiatry (specialist in psychiatry) with the thesis "Was ist Wahn?"

From 1990 to 1997 he worked as a senior physician at the Psychiatric University Clinic in Heidelberg . He was twice a visiting professor at Harvard University ; another research stay took him to the Institute for Cognitive and Decision Sciences at the University of Oregon .

In 1997 Manfred Spitzer was appointed to the newly created chair for psychiatry at Ulm University. A short time later, Spitzer became the editor of the specialist journal Nervenheilkunde , a training body for doctors and an association body of many associations in the psychiatric and psychotherapeutic field. There he also regularly publishes his own works and editorials, which he later re-edited separately in books.

Spitzer became known beyond specialist circles for his popular science lectures and generally understandable books.

From 2004 to 2012, the series Geist & Brain was broadcast in 194 episodes under the leadership of Bayerischer Rundfunk , in which Spitzer presented findings from brain research. These programs are also available on DVD and can be viewed on BR-alpha . With the transfer center, he came up with the concept of " Games makes schools" , a competition for primary schools . Spitzer is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Louisenlund Foundation .

Books

Man: Born to learn

According to Spitzer, brain research not only shows that we were born to learn and cannot help but learn for life, but also the conditions for successful learning. It enables us to better understand ourselves in the best sense of the word and makes an important cultural contribution. It is time to use this understanding to design learning environments.

Because all actions leave “traces in the brain” - the more intensely the more frequently they are performed - it doesn't matter what children and adolescents do all day. Children learned much faster than adults. An adult's brain is fundamentally different from the developing child's brain. Action and understanding (in the literal sense of the word, cf. Jean Piaget ) played a role not only in learning specific individual things, but also in learning general knowledge ( semantic memory and even abstract terms such as numbers): “Who wants that from his children Become a mathematician or specialist in information technology, who provide finger games instead of laptops in kindergartens. And those who take the written language seriously should advocate pencils rather than keyboards. "

Computers harm children more than they use

With reference to statistical media usage data from schoolchildren in Germany that were collected before 2010, Spitzer warned in 2012 against the consumption of electronic media by children and young people; this leads to only superficial preoccupation with information and is at the expense of one's own, active learning. The brain is only trained (like a muscle) when it is really challenged.

Spitzer criticized some of the education politicians in this context in 2012: “ Enquetes only invite experts who come from media institutes sponsored by media companies. That explains why they recommend that every student have a laptop, even though we know that it does more harm than good to learning. "

Digital dementia

In his book, Digital Dementia , published in 2012, Spitzer criticized political and industrial initiatives for “equipping all students with notebooks and promoting computer game pedagogy”. These initiatives were evidence of sheer ignorance or unscrupulous commercial interests. Numerous scientific studies consider digital media to be unsuitable as a learning tool. Online social networks attracted virtual friendships; in fact, however, they impaired social behavior and promoted depression .

Cyber ​​sick!

Spitzer's book, published in 2015, complements the previous one and shows how people and society have been changed in recent years by dealing with digital media and the Internet. He describes the development of a modern " civilization disease " and its various facets (e.g. addiction to games and online, isolation from real life). Based on his findings as a scientist and father, he campaigns in his work for more media skills and for maintaining and strengthening emotional intelligence, especially among children and young people.

reception

Columnist reception

In a dispute with Manfred Spitzer in 2004, the psychologist Elsbeth Stern took the position that brain research had not yet produced any results "that force us to see the findings of teaching research differently." In the foreword to the book How we learn: Was die Brain research knows about it , which Elsbeth Stern wrote for the German edition, she explains the following: Spitzer, who in his criticism primarily aimed at the didactics of individual subjects, forgets that the didactics in particular are the appropriate instrument to really grasp the processes in classrooms and to be able to intervene appropriately. According to Stern, even the simplest learning processes cannot be reduced to brain processes alone. This applies all the more to school-based learning, which involves complex knowledge that has only developed in a cultural context.

The biologist and brain researcher Gerhard Roth agrees that findings from brain research and didactics are largely in line, but he nevertheless emphasizes the important role of neuroscientific research, as it can better explain what makes educational sense and what is not. Nothing of what Spitzer lecture is new to a good teacher in terms of content. Rather, the advancement of knowledge consists in the fact that it is now possible to show better why what a good teacher does and not what a bad one does. Roth contradicts Spitzer's statement about “digital dementia” and argues: “There is not the slightest scientifically verifiable indication [...], also no empirical or experimental evidence that, for example, children go dumb through the use of digital media in school. The opposite is more likely the case. "

The sociologist Stephan G. Humer expresses doubts about the transferability of experimental findings on behavioral changes through computer games to everyday life.

Spitzer was repeatedly criticized in the media for his polemical style.

He was also accused of serving the "fears of insecure parents", of being biased and of providing no clear evidence with his "combination of findings from brain research and empirical social observation".

Christian Stöcker criticized the fact that Spitzer constantly used "absurd analogies tailored to create fear, such as the comparison of x-rays in shoe shops in the 1970s" and "suggests" with the job title 'brain researcher and psychiatrist', which he and his publishing house always prominently placed, his works are not about opinions, but scientifically proven facts ”.

It was also stated that Spitzer “sees criticism as a personal affront”. Sometimes Spitzer's appearance and conversational behavior is criticized. The news portal WeltN24 reported in October 2016 that the experts invited to Anne Will's talk show were "shouted at by a psychiatrist" (Spitzer is meant).

Michael Hanfeld , who rated the book critically in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , nevertheless noted that anyone who has already observed Spitzer's assessment “should unreservedly agree” with “the psychological disposition of young people when it comes to their analogue, conventional leisure activities” noted nonetheless suspended and given up for a career as a first-person shooter player ”. The literary and media scholar Roberto Simanowski said in an article for Friday that Spitzer's theses are not unfounded, but one must “protect them against the tone in which they are presented”. Cultural pessimism is "not helpful". Christian Stöcker described Spitzer in his column at Spiegel Online as an “anti-digitization preacher”.

The Baden-Württemberg State Media Center , which also performs educational tasks, wrote in a statement: “Manfred Spitzer from the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy III, Ulm University Hospital, cannot be blamed for naming problems. Rather, Spitzer is to blame for the fact that he does not offer future-oriented solutions, that he drives into the parade of all those who strive with great commitment and seriousness for a meaningful and responsible use of digital media [...] "

Dirk von Gehlen accuses Spitzer of "feeling uncomfortable with the present, which has nothing to do with technological progress or any form of digital speed, but solely with the exaggeration of what is known". Beat Döbeli Honegger , professor at the University of Education Schwyz , attests to Spitzer a tendentious description of certain facts and a selective, meaning-distorting quotation from scientific studies. Although Spitzer addresses important issues, his polemical presentation is hardly helpful.

Scientific controversy

Christian Stöcker criticizes Spitzer's way of working as unscientific. In March 2018, Stöcker complained in his column at Spiegel Online that Spitzer regularly reinterpreted correlations to causal relationships ; that he cites studies very selectively and always omits what does not fit his theses; further that he, like many others, pretended that ' addiction ' was a generally accepted scientific category in the context of media.

Media psychologists Markus Appel and Constanze Schreiner, among others, took up Spitzer's theses on “digital dementia” and compared them with corresponding meta-analyzes of the effects of digital media. These contradict the development-damaging effects of the Internet that Spitzer claims: According to these meta-analyzes, intensive Internet use neither leads to less social exchange nor less socio-political engagement, and intensive Internet users are by no means more lonely than infrequent users. Furthermore, they contradict the theses that both decreased well-being and obesity are related to the use of digital media. In addition, they cite meta-analyzes that imply that neither learning on the computer nor the use of computer-based learning games has a negative impact on learning success. With regard to written language skills, they made it clear that they would in no way suffer from writing on the computer. This work received wide media coverage. For his part, Spitzer published a reply a little later in which he accused the authors of relying on outdated data and cited more recent studies that would prove his theses. In another replica by Appel and Schreiner, argumentative errors by Spitzer are shown and the original criticism is scientifically confirmed again. In summary, they come to the conclusion that "Spitzer's one-sided perspective obscures the view of the opportunities and risks of life in a digital world."

In March 2018, in an interview with Deutschlandfunk , Markus Appel reacted again to Spitzer's criticism of the digitization of German schools, which he had expressed in an interview with the same broadcaster in the morning. He formulated that Spitzer's "line of argument [...] was far removed from the scientific mainstream", "so [...] very extreme, and in this imbalance it in no way reflects the state of scientific research." He held Spitzer "black and white painting." “, But also confirmed the sobering results of the 2015 PISA study director study, often cited by Spitzer,“ that the hoped-for effects of investments in digital media, so to speak, have not shown up there. ”However, he concluded a“ challenge [...] to deal with new media and to make pedagogical action more effective [...] in clear contrast to this suggestion that ultimately new media [...] should be banned from school. "

The neurologist Hans-Peter Thier doubted that the issue of “digital dementia” even existed: “The concept of digital dementia is wrong. Medicine understands dementia as a loss of originally available cognitive skills - a loss of memory, a limitation of the ability to think, disorientation and ultimately a disintegration of the personality structure. Dementia can have many causes. One example is brain damage as a result of circulatory disorders. The common denominator of the causes are changes in the structure and physiological processes in the brain [sic!], So that they deviate far from normal. Whatever the use of digital media may do in the brain - there is no evidence whatsoever that it leads to tangible pathological changes in the brain. ”According to Thier, no examination method can be used to tell a brain whether it belongs to an intensive digital media user. On the contrary, there are indications that surfing the Internet has a positive effect on Alzheimer's prophylaxis among seniors .

Awards

Publications (selection)

  • Hallucinations. A contribution to general and clinical psychopathology. Springer , Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-540-18611-5 .
  • What is madness? Studies on the delusional problem. Springer, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-540-51072-9 .
  • Ghost on the net. 1996.
  • with Leo Hermele: From degeneration to anticipation - thoughts on the non-Mendelian inheritance of neuropsychiatric diseases from a historical and current perspective. In: Gerhardt Nissen , Frank Badura (ed.): Series of publications of the German Society for the History of Neurology. Volume 2. Würzburg 1996, pp. 111-127.
  • Ketchup and the collective unconscious. Stories from neurology. Schattauer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-7945-2115-3 .
  • Learn. Brain research and the school of life. 2002.
  • Music in the head: listening, making music, understanding and experiencing in the neural network. 2002.
  • Self-determination. Brain research and the question: what should we do? 2004.
  • Frontal lobe to tonsil nucleus. Last messages from neurology. 2005.
  • Caution screen! Electronic media, brain development, health and society. Klett, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-12-010170-2 .
  • God gene and grandmother neuron. Stories of Brain Research and Society. 2006.
  • Mozart's flashes of inspiration. How our brain processes music. 2006.
  • About the meaning of life. Paths instead of works. Schattauer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-7945-2563-8 .
  • Love letters and shopping malls. Meditations in and over the head. Schattauer Verlag , 2008, ISBN 978-3-7945-2627-7 .
  • Medicine for education. One way out of the crisis. 2010, ISBN 978-3-8274-2677-2 .
  • How Children Learn to Think 2010, ISBN 978-3-902533-26-5 . (4 audio books, 300 min.)
  • Think and learn like adults. 2011, ISBN 978-3-902533-38-8 . (3 audio books, 210 min.)
  • Doing nothing, flirting, kissing, and other brain powers. Schattauer Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-7945-2856-1 .
  • Digital dementia. How we drive ourselves and our children crazy. Droemer Knaur , Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-426-27603-7 . ( Number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list from August 27 to September 9, 2012 )
  • as ed .: Heinz Janisch, Carola Holland: Tom and the king of animals (=  learning to live. 1). 2012, ISBN 978-3-902533-43-2 .
  • as editors: Heinz Janisch, Susanne Wechdorn: My friend, the lawn mower (=  learning to live ). 2012, ISBN 978-3-902533-45-6 .
  • The (un) social brain. Schattauer, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-7945-2918-6 .
  • Little Red Riding Hood and the stress. Schattauer, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-7945-2977-3 .
  • Cyber ​​sick! How digitized life is ruining our health. Droemer, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-426-27608-2 .
  • Before, everything was later. Schattauer, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-7945-3243-8 .
  • Lonliness. The unrecognized disease. Painful. Contagious. Fatal. Droemer, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-426-27676-1 .
  • The smartphone epidemic. Risks to health, education and society. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-608-96368-7 .

Web links

Commons : Manfred Spitzer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Manfred Spitzer  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TV show “Typisch deutsch”: Manfred Spitzer in conversation with Hajo Schumacher
  2. ↑ M. Spitzer: What is delusion? Studies on the delusional problem . Springer-Verlag, Berlin / New York 1989, ISBN 3-540-51072-9 .
  3. ↑ Nervenheilkunde in Schattauer Verlag , schattauer.de ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schattauer.de
  4. ^ Mind & Brain , BR-alpha
  5. ^ Board of Trustees of the Louisenlund Foundation
  6. ↑ Manfred Spitzer: Born to learn. ( Memento of the original from February 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) 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. In: Journal for Culture Exchange. 4/2004. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cms.ifa.de
  7. ↑ Manfred Spitzer: Self-determination. Brain research and what should we do? Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8274-2081-7 , p. 46.
  8. ↑ a b c Manfred Spitzer: Digital dementia. How we drive ourselves and our children crazy . Droemer Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-426-27603-7 , p. 203.
  9. ↑ F. Rehbein, M. Kleimann, T. Mößle: Computer game addiction in childhood and adolescence. Empirical findings on causes, diagnostics and comorbidities with special consideration of game-immanent characteristics of dependency. (= Criminological Research Institute Lower Saxony. Research report No. 108). Criminological Research Institute Lower Saxony, 2009, cit. according to Manfred Spitzer: digital dementia. How we drive ourselves and our children crazy. Droemer Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-426-27603-7 .
  10. ↑ Spitzer in an interview with the magazine sales economy (August 20, 2012)
  11. ↑ Who makes school smart? Discussion with Elsbeth Stern in: Die Zeit . No. 28, July 1, 2004.
  12. ↑ Elsbeth Stern: Foreword. In: How We Learn: What Brain Research Knows About It.
  13. ↑ Possibilities and limits of knowledge transfer and knowledge acquisition. In: Ralf Caspary: Learning and the brain: the way to a new pedagogy. Herder Spectrum, Freiburg 2006, p. 54.
  14. ↑ Susanne Iden: Digital dementia? On the contrary! , HAZ June 3, 2016
  15. ↑ Stephan G. Humer ( University of the Arts Berlin ): beginning wrong, everything wrong - for the digitization of the living environment. A reply to Manfred Spitzer. In: Educational Leadership. 2011. (PDF; 545 kB)
  16. ↑ Werner Bartens: Krude Theorien, populist mounted . In: Spiegel Online . March 11, 2018 ( sueddeutsche.de ).
  17. ↑ Beat Döbeli Honegger: No, the USA has not abolished handwriting . Beats Blog, November 6, 2015.
  18. ^ Beat Döbeli Honegger: Selective citation . Beats Blog, November 3, 2015.
  19. ↑ Werner Bartens: Krude Theorien, populist mounted. on: sueddeutsche.de , September 9, 2012, accessed on September 11, 2012.
  20. ↑ Jan Georg Plavec: Fat, stupid, aggressive, lonely, sick. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. August 26, 2012. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  21. ↑ a b Michael Hanfeld: A coarse wedge on a coarse block. on: faz.net , September 4, 2012, accessed September 9, 2012.
  22. ↑ Christian Stöcker: bestselling author about loneliness: The Spitzer method . In: Spiegel Online . March 11, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 11, 2018]).
  23. ↑ Djana Eitberger: Spitzer sees criticism as a personal affront . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . May 8, 2018 ( sueddeutsche.de ).
  24. ^ Benedikt Fuest: “Anne Will” discussion ends in riot , October 31, 2016
  25. ↑ Social decline and early death. on: freitag.de , August 9, 2012, accessed on September 11, 2012.
  26. ↑ Don't hear, don't see, don't digitize. In: Spiegel online. October 16, 2016.
  27. ↑ https://www.lehrerfreund.de/schule/1s/manfred-spitzer-digitale-demenz/4236
  28. ↑ Cyber ​​sick! The decline of culture. October 25, 2015.
  29. ↑ Beat Döbeli Honegger: No, the USA has not abolished handwriting . Beats Blog, November 6, 2015.
  30. ^ Beat Döbeli Honegger: Selective citation . Beats Blog, November 3, 2015.
  31. ↑ Christian Stöcker: bestselling author about loneliness: The Spitzer method . In: Spiegel Online . March 11, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 11, 2018]).
  32. ↑ M. Appel, C. Schreiner: Digital dementia? Myths and scientific evidence on the effects of Internet use. In: Psychological Rundschau . Vol. 65, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 1-10; Abstract and literature list from the publisher ; Content (PDF) here for a fee! Publication preprint. (PDF, 31 pages) (No longer available online.) University of Koblenz-Landau , 2013, archived from the original on March 8, 2016 ; accessed on March 16, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Manfred Spitzer: About supposedly new insights into the risks and side effects of digital information technology. (PDF, 10 pages) Manuscript. (No longer available online.) In: Psychologische Rundschau Vol. 66, Issue 2, April 2015, pages 114–119. Archived from the original on January 22, 2015 ; accessed on March 16, 2020 .
  34. ↑ M. Appel, C. Schreiner: Living in a digital world: Scientific evidence and problematic fallacies, opinion on the reply from Spitzer (2015). Retrieved July 20, 2017 .
  35. ↑ Digitization in schools: “Any black or white painting is out of place”. In: Deutschlandfunk. March 8, 2018, accessed December 11, 2018 .
  36. ↑ Digital Classroom - Psychiatrist: If children just mop, they are at a disadvantage. In: Deutschlandfunk. March 8, 2018, accessed December 11, 2018 .
  37. ↑ Norbert Lossau: Brain Research: Digital Dementia? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! In: welt.de. January 2, 2013, accessed December 12, 2018 .
  38. ↑ The DGPPN Duphar Research Promotion Prize was awarded from 1990 to 1996 to young medical researchers who have presented excellent research in the field of psychiatry, psychotherapy and neurology ( Memento of December 13, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) September 11, 2012.
  39. ↑ Award of the Cogito Prize 2002 on the occasion of the “Dies academicus” of the University of Zurich cogitofoundation.ch , accessed on September 9, 2012.
  40. ↑ cogito Prize 2002 cogitofoundation.ch ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (PDF; 66 kB), accessed on September 9, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cogitofoundation.ch
personal data
SURNAME Spitzer, Manfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German neuroscientist and psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Lengfeld (Odenwald)