Robert Sommer (psychiatrist)

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Robert Sommer

Karl Robert Sommer (born December 19, 1864 in Grottkau , † February 2, 1937 in Gießen ) was a German psychiatrist . In 1901 he coined the term " psychohygiene " and founded the German Association for Mental Hygiene and the Society for Experimental Psychology (since 1929 German Society for Psychology ). He also published on genealogy , philosophy and forensics . But he was also an active inventor and was involved in local politics.

life and career

Sommer was the youngest of the six children of the lawyer Karl Friedrich Adolf Sommer (1824–1903) and his wife Anna, née Lange (1831–1872). Robert Sommer wanted to become a naval officer, but his shortsightedness did not allow it. Instead he studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Leipzig , where he heard from Wilhelm Wundt and Carl Ludwig . After completing his physics course , he moved to Berlin in 1885 . There he did his doctorate on John Locke's relationship with René Descartes to the doctorate phil. with Heinrich von Stein . The following year he was awarded the second prize of the von Miloszewski Foundation by the Berlin Academy of Sciences for his prize publication History of German Psychology and Aesthetics from Wolff-Baumgarten to Kant-Schiller . After completing military service as a one-year doctor in Leipzig, he became an assistant doctor at the Rybnik insane asylum in 1889 .

In 1890, Sommer went to Würzburg as Konrad Rieger's assistant . Here he received his doctorate in 1891 on Soemmering's doctrine of the seat of the soul as a doctor med. and completed his habilitation in psychiatry a year later with A Rare Case of Language Disorder . He then took over the editing of the Centralblatt for Neurology and Psychiatry .

On March 27, 1895, Sommer was appointed professor and director of the newly founded psychiatric clinic and the University of Gießen , a post he held until his retirement on November 1, 1933. He played a key role in the design of the clinic, in which he concentrated on experimental psychology . After he had supported Wilhelm Griesinger's idea of ​​psychiatric care through “city shelters” early on , he later advocated Hermann Simon's occupational therapy .

In 1904, together with his colleagues Georg Elias Müller , Hermann Ebbinghaus , Oswald Külpe , Ernst Meumann and Friedrich Schumann , summoned the first “Congress for Experimental Psychology” in Gießen, at which the Society for Experimental Psychology was launched.

In 1906, Sommer married Emmy Schaefer (1867–1935) from Giessen. Their marriage was childless. From 1911 to 1922, as a non-party, at the request of the city of Giessen, Sommer took on the honorary office of a free citizen in the Giessen city parliament. In 1936 he received the city's plaque of honor for his services.

Sommer was a busy organizer. In 1923 he founded the German Committee for Mental Hygiene and in 1925 the German Association for Mental Hygiene , which he also headed until Ernst Rüdin succeeded him in 1933. In 1928 he also founded the General Medical Society for Psychotherapy , of which he became the first chairman. He advocated psychoanalysis as a specialty of complex research, but rejected its one-sided emphasis on sexual complexes. In 1936 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Psychiatric work

In his dissertation as well as in his habilitation thesis, Sommer dealt critically with the dogmatism of the localization theory prevailing in psychiatry at the time . Instead, he developed a psychophysiological approach. In his diagnosis of mental illnesses , he coined the term “ psychogeny ” as a substitute name for hysteria and introduced the “endogenous” category into the theory of psychoses. Sommer also transferred this category to criminal psychology , in which he rejected the existence of an anatomically distinct “born criminal” in the sense of Cesare Lombroso , but spoke of “endogenous criminal natures”.

Apparatus developed by Robert Sommer for the three-dimensional analysis of the expressive movements of the hands (1899)

Since Sommer understood human expressive movements as a mirror of psychological processes, he developed a number of instruments for psychophysical investigation. So he constructed an apparatus for the three-dimensional analysis of the expressive movements of the hands. In his textbook on psychopathological research methods, he tried to establish an exact theory of psychopathological symptoms using analytical methods, psychophysiological experiments and statistical evaluations . He came to the conclusion that there are individual reaction types due to hereditary predispositions.

Because of this, Sommer dealt in more detail with family research, not least with the descent of Goethe , and tried to develop a methodical doctrine of inheritance. In 1923 he demanded that a "Reich Institute for Family Research, Heredity and Regeneration Theory" should be set up. In 1927 he added a racial doctrine to his work in order to show its social necessity by linking family research with racial hygiene and psychological hygiene.

inventor

Sommer not only constructed his own research instruments, but also applied for a patent in 1901 for “water shoes”, two small boats reminiscent of skis that could be used to cross water and attack England in the event of a war . When he tried to cross the Lahn for the first time , Sommer went under, but was not discouraged. In 1934 he drove with technically improved water shoes from Gießen to Wetzlar down the Lahn.

From 1915 onwards, Sommer also tried to organize inventions. In 1917 he founded a company to establish a German inventors' institute and in 1922 convened a congress for inventions in Giessen.

Popular privy councilor

Group photo at the " Barbarenstein ", 1912 (summer sitting in front in a light suit)

Sommer worried about the effects of restless city life on people's nerves. Against the threat of nervousness , he advocated public quiet halls. “The socio-prophylactic task is to create,” said Sommer, “opportunities to rest in the hurry and restlessness of modern life, which offer an opportunity to rest for a short time and to recover nerve strength.” At the Dresden “ Hygiene Exhibition ” 1911 such a quiet hall was presented to the public. Sommer also took into account the theory of nervousness at that time by renaming his Gießen clinic to Clinic for Mental and Nervous Diseases .

Sommer was privately involved in the hiking movement and in 1909 he and his wife founded a "hiking association" for Gießen university teachers. On one of their hikes, the summers came across the northernmost point of the Wetterau Limes on the Grüningen and Obersteinberg boundaries . In order to protect the still-preserved border wall from leveling, the property was bought in the summer of 1910 and in 1912 the so-called “ barbarian stone”, which is now a listed building, was built based on the model of a Roman soldier's grave.

However, his passion also became his undoing. Sommer died in 1937 of pneumonia that he contracted on a six-hour winter hike.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Giessen psychiatric clinic, the "Robert Sommer Award Symposium" was launched, at which international scientists have been presenting and discussing research results on schizophrenia every two years since then , as well as the Robert Sommer Medal for special merits in the Schizophrenia Research is awarded.

In Gießen there is also a street named after Robert Sommer.

Fonts

Binding of the first edition of the book Familienforschung und Vererbungslehre (1907) by Robert Sommer
  • Locke's relationship with Descartes. (An award publication crowned by the philosophy faculty of Berlin University on August 3, 1886.) Mayer & Müller, Berlin 1887.
  • Soemmering's doctrine of the seat of the soul ... Dissertation. University of Würzburg 1891. Stahel, Würzburg 1891.
  • On the psychology of language. 1891.
  • Basics of a history of German psychology and aesthetics from Wolff-Baumgarten to Kant-Schiller. Stahel, Würzburg 1892.
  • On the theory of cerebral writing and reading disorders. 1893.
  • Diagnosis of mental illness. For general practitioners and students. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Vienna 1894.
  • IV. Reflex multiplier: apparatus for the investigation of the knee phenomenon during equilibration of the lower leg. 1894.
  • Textbook of psychopathological investigation methods. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin 1899.
  • Diagnostics of mental illnesses for general practitioners and students. 2nd Edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin 1901.
  • The problem of walking on the water. A mechanical-physiol. Study (plus explanation of DRP No. 130174). JA Barth, Leipzig 1902.
  • For measuring the motor side effects of mental states. 1902.
  • For measuring time in psychophysical experiments. 1903.
  • Criminal psychology and criminal psychopathology on a scientific basis. Barth, Leipzig 1904.
  • Association for Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Report on the opening meeting on November 5, 1904 at Giessen: Adolf. 1905.
  • Family research and genetics. Barth, Leipzig 1907. Digitized
  • Goethe in the light of heredity. Barth, Leipzig 1908.
  • Goethe's relatives in Wetzlar. Barth, Leipzig 1908.
  • Public rest halls. Marhold, Halle a. P. 1913.
  • War and soul life. Kindt, Giessen 1915.
  • Rebirth. German sonnets from Italy. Kindt, Giessen 1915.
  • The physical education of the German student body. Voss, Leipzig 1916.
  • The stabilization method with measurement of the body resistance during galvanic treatment. 1916.
  • About family resemblance. Wiener Urania, Vienna 1917. Digitized
  • Giessen art collection. Compiled for the Upper Hessian Art Association. Brühl'sche Universitäts-Buch- u. Lithography, Giessen 1918.
  • The Swiss Soldan families. Giessen 1921.
  • Family research and genetics. 2. reworked. u. Probably edition with 16 illustrations, Barth, Leipzig 1922. Digitized
  • Animal psychology. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1925.
  • Family research, heredity and race theory. 3. Edition. Barth, Leipzig 1927. Digitized
  • The Nibelungenwege from Worms via Vienna to Etzelburg. A German hiking book. Publishing house for prehistory and human research, Weimar 1929.
  • The factory currency. Oberhess. People's newspaper, Giessen 1931.
  • Thule and the home of the Edda. Schoetz, Berlin 1937.
  • The chemical witch's kitchen. After Goethe's “Faust” as a festival for the opening of the Liebig Museum in Gießen on March 26, 1920. In four scenes. [Lange], Giessen 1920.
  • with Paul Clingestein, Elisabeth Streller: A hiking trail from Thuringia to the Rhine. Sis, Zeitz 1932.

literature

  • Joseph Slawik and Robert Sommer: A Spiritual Worker. Secret Medical Councilor Prof. Dr. Robert Sommer in Giessen. On his 70th birthday on December 19, 1934. School a. Parental home, Siegen i. Westphalia 1934.
  • Jost Benedum : Robert Sommer (1864–1937): The popular Gießen privy councilor. In: Giessener Universitätsblätter. Issue 1/1989, pp. 33-42.
  • Michael Zum Meyer Wischen: "To explore the depths of the soul ...". Robert Sommer (1864–1937) and the concept of a holistic, expanded psychiatry. Dissertation. University of Giessen. Schmitz, Giessen 1988, ISBN 3-87711-164-5 .
  • Volker Roelcke : "Prevention" in hygiene and psychiatry at the beginning of the 20th century. Illness, Society, Heredity and Eugenics with Robert Sommer and Emil Gotschlich. In: Ulrike Enke, Volker Roelcke (ed.): The Medical Faculty of the University of Giessen. Institutions, actors and events from its founding in 1607 to the 20th century. Steiner, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3515090414 , pp. 395-416 ( The Medical Faculty of the University of Giessen 1607 to 2007. Volume 1).
  • Jan-Peters Janssen: The psychiatrist Robert summer (1864-1937). Promoter of university sports and psychology. In: Yearbook of the German Society for the History of Sports Science eV LIT, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3643102294 , pp. 145–176 ( Studies on the history of sports. 10).

Web links

Commons : Robert Sommer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Robert Sommer
  2. ↑ Heinz Schott, Rainer Tölle: History of Psychiatry. Illnesses wrong ways forms of treatment. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-53555-0 , p. 336.
  3. ^ Richard F. Wetzell: Inventing the Criminal. A History of German Criminology 1880-1945. Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, London 2000, ISBN 0-8078-2535-2 , pp. 53-54.
  4. ↑ Peter Payer: The sound of silence . In: The press. January 2, 2009, last accessed: August 20, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Summer, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Summer, Karl Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychiatrist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Grottkau
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1937
Place of death to water