Robert Kirchhoff

Robert Kirchhoff (born May 4, 1920 in Bad Hall as Gustav Robert Vicktor Walter Kirchhoff ; † April 1999 ) was a German psychologist, university professor and one of the most important representatives of expression psychology .

Life

Kirchhoff began studying psychology at the Philosophical Faculty of Heidelberg University , which he completed in 1950 with an excellent diploma. This was followed by the writing of a dissertation on the “Structure of Explanation” by Willy Hellpach and Rudert, and in 1952 he was awarded a doctorate by the Philosophical Faculty.

From 1952/53 Kirchhoff was a research assistant at the Psychological Institute of Heidelberg University. 1956 followed his habilitation with the subject "Principles and Problems of General Expressionism" with Rudert, Karl Löwith and Hans-Georg Gadamer .

In 1962 Kirchhoff was appointed adjunct professor at Heidelberg University. In the same year he married Gabriele Anna Maria Kirchhoff, b. Reichert.

In 1963 Kirchhoff accepted a full professorship at the Technical University of Berlin and was then director of the Psychological Institute II at the University of Cologne until his retirement in 1985 .

Kirchhoff died in April 1999. The extensive scientific legacy, in particular on expression psychology, is now in the archive of the Hagen Open University .

Works (selection)

• The structure of explaining. A contribution to the analysis and theory of explicative thinking, Heidelberg 1952.
• General theory of expression. Principles and problems of general expression theory. A contribution to the foundation of the science of expression, Göttingen 1957.
• Expression Psychology. Handbook of Psychology. Vol. 5. Verlag für Psychologie Hogrefe, Göttingen 1965.

Another source

Robert Kirchhoff's estate in the Research Archive for the History of Psychology (PGFA) at the Distance University in Hagen