Ronald Grossarth-Maticek

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Ronald Grossarth-Maticek, 2015

Ronald Grossarth-Maticek (* 1940 in Budapest ) is a German medical sociologist and author based in Heidelberg, Germany.

Life

Ronald Grossarth-Maticek studied sociology, psychopathology, criminology and medicine in Heidelberg and Belgrade. In 1973 he received his doctorate in sociology from Heidelberg University . In 1981 his son Jan Grossarth was born in Heidelberg . In 1991 he received his doctorate in medical sciences from the University of Belgrade .

From 1973 to 1995 he headed the Heidelberg Prospective Study , a long-term study in which around 30,000 people from 18,000 Heidelberg households were examined at regular intervals over a period of more than 20 years for a variety of health-influencing variables.

Using extensive questionnaires, he recorded dozens of physical factors (such as smoking, exercise, organ damage, genetic disposition and diet) as well as psychological factors ( early childhood attachment to mother , stressors , distress, eustress, self-regulation). He developed his own behavior typology, into which he classified the respondents based on the degree of their self-regulation .

He worked closely with Hans Jürgen Eysenck . From 1990 to 2006 Grossarth-Maticek was director of the Institute for Preventive Medicine, Political, Business and Health Psychology in Heidelberg. He then took over the management of the Heidelberg Center for Multidisciplinary Research (ZMF). Since 2007 he has also been director of the intergovernmental program for multidisciplinary studies of the European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD), part of the UN Peace University in Costa Rica.

plant

Ronald Grossarth-Maticek is known for his lectures, numerous books and articles in specialist journals. He mainly works in the field of psychosomatics .

Causal chains for risks in connection with cancer and heart diseases (according to Grossarth-Maticek)

According to Grossarth-Maticek's research, the risk of disease is multiplied by poor self-regulation. Physical risk factors have an overall effect, especially when psychological risk factors are present at the same time. Grossarth was able to demonstrate a predominantly multi-causal disease development in the Heidelberg prospective study . In the case of people with unfavorable self-regulation who do not recognize behavioral alternatives, do not consider or do not implement them, Grossarth-Maticek speaks of a “peculiar compulsion to act in exactly the same way and not differently without need”. Such behavior arises from the consolidation of behavior patterns in the first years of life. If the "free flow of love " was disturbed by rejection, trauma , disappointment or other experiences in early childhood, internal and external communication could be disturbed in adulthood, which in combination with other factors have a synergistic effect on health. Inspired by the collaboration with the psychologist Hans Jürgen Eysenck , Grossarth developed a new behavior typology:

Grossarth behavior typology

In the behavior typology developed by Grossarth, six types of behavioral patterns are distinguished:

Type I: suffering in isolation : central and persistent focus on a longed-for but evading object; Inhibition in the realization of the longed-for closeness, thus inhibition of the satisfaction of this emotionally most important need.

Type II: Helpless excitement: Central and persistent focus on a disruptive, obstructive object, without achieving the desired distance , with repeated over- excitement and a feeling of helplessness .

Type III: Ambivalence: High ambivalence and strong egocentrism . Emotionally unstable with intermittent phases of autonomous self-regulation, but also with phases of intensive search for closeness with emotional needs on the one hand and phases of hyperactive excessive distancing on the other after injuries.

Type IV: Good self-regulation: Alignment with current objects that enable well-being , pleasure and security or through which a sense of purpose can be experienced. Flexible self-regulation adapted to the situation and needs .

Type V: Emphasizes rational: rational and anti-emotional behavior. When you are overwhelmed by emotions, crises such as depressive mood arise .

Type VI: Irrational-emotional: irrational behavior dominated by one's own feelings, without a rational examination of one's own behavior.

This typology is the result of the studies and considerations carried out by Grossarth-Maticek on the history and frequency of chronic diseases and health. He emphasizes similarities between types I and II and sees type III as a hybrid of I and II. Of course, characteristics of several behavior types can be present in a test subject at the same time, but one of them is usually dominant in behavior.

Autonomy training

Grossarth-Maticek and his colleagues, including the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Helm Stierlin , developed an autonomy training that aims to stimulate self-regulation. In this autonomy training, the ability to achieve well-being, pleasure, security and meaningfulness through self-active problem-solving is strengthened in conversation. The trainee is encouraged to perceive himself and to recognize which personal activities increase his well-being . The autonomy training is therefore suitable as a preventive intervention in order to achieve effective changes in behavior in a relatively short time and then to incorporate these into a long-term preventive program.

Grossarth uses the term autonomy in the sense of an inner independence from objects with negative consequences, which results from self-awareness and the redesign of communication. Self-regulation includes the personal ability to create the conditions for pleasure, well-being, security and inner balance in interpersonal relationships through one's own behavior. The aim of the automobile training is not egocentric Epicureanism that ignores fellow human beings, but rather the achievement of happiness in a socially accepted framework that respects and supports both fellow human beings and oneself. In 2001 he had it trademarked under the term autonomy training for health and problem solving by stimulating self-regulation .

The statistically significant life-prolonging effect of autonomy training in cancer patients, which is proven in the Heidelberg Prospective Study, cannot be interpreted in such a way that autonomy training is a method with which a permanent cure can be achieved in every case , but the results show that the improvement self-regulation is one of the factors that contribute to an improvement in the function of the immune system, for example through changes in behavior with regard to habits that are harmful to health or health-promoting habits, stress reduction and an increase in subjective well-being . His clinical study on mistletoe therapy in connection with improvement of self-regulation produced corresponding results . According to the findings of Grossarth-Maticek, a high level of self-regulation is also a significant factor for prevention (prophylaxis). This was shown both in the people examined in this long-term study who already showed good self-regulation and in those who learned this through autonomy training as part of the study. In Grossarth's book Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , the test results of his form of therapy, also referred to here as program therapy, can be found , which among other things has been experimentally tested as an effective component of smoking cessation .

Reference to health and social policy

Grossarth points out that, according to his research results, the costs in the health system can be reduced significantly if the patients are torn from conventional passive care by stimulating self-activity and personal responsibility, and that people who have become unemployed who have good self-regulation, significantly shorter without Professional activities are as people frozen in a passive attitude of expectation. In this context, Grossarth and his colleagues also deal with the formation of judgments on the unconditional basic income .

Reception and awards

The psychologist Reinhold Schwarz and other critics accuse Grossarth-Maticek of defending the so-called “cancer personality”, an outdated concept of psycho-oncology . Grossarth-Maticek himself, however, does not speak of “cancer personality”, but describes specific behavioral patterns (e.g. suffering in the isolation of objects that are longed for but are perceived to be of central importance but inaccessible) that exacerbated certain risks, for example the risk of lung cancer in smokers . Grossarth-Maticek speaks of synergy effects here. He emphasizes the effectiveness of the intervention through cognitive behavioral therapy and thus the variability of psychological factors and behavioral patterns.

Grossarth-Maticek was able to demonstrate psychophysical interactions that increase the likelihood of illness (cf. Synergetic Preventive Medicine , Springer, Heidelberg 2008, page 210). The so-called cancer personality is empirically refuted by Grossarth-Maticek as a representative of multidisciplinary preventive medicine , because if there is no or only little influence of physical disease factors (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, etc.), the behavior pattern as an influencing factor loses its statistical significance . Helm Stierlin , who is also critical of the concept of the cancer personality, recognizes the distinction made by Grossarth-Maticek between Type I and Type IV and, in order to emphasize their changeability , describes them as mentalities .

Grossarth's data and methods were checked in detail by Werner W. Wittmann with the result that a valid database was created here, which no one can ignore, and whose implications must be taken seriously and discussed intensively. Wittmann saw the key point of possible controversy as the question of how a relatively short but intensive intervention like autonomy training could develop such long-term effects.

Bojan Godina speaks of a paradigm shift in research into health, because Grossarth's studies also demonstrate synergy effects between medical treatment and an improvement in self-regulation in terms of therapeutic success. Godina points to the growing importance of psychoneuroimmunology in cancer research in American studies.

Grossarth's research results influenced the development of psycho-oncology towards its current form.

Based on Grossarth-Maticek's autonomy training and the concepts of salutogenesis , the doctor and lecturer in general medicine at the Hannover Medical School, Theodor Dierk Petzold, developed salutogenic communication .

The European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD) awarded Grossarth-Maticek the title of professor , which he is allowed to use in Germany with the addition of Postgraduate Studies, ECPD, or Professor for Postgraduate Studies, ECPD .

There is great interest in Japan in the Heidelberg Prospective Study on Prevention . Jun Nagano and his team from the Institute of Health Sciences at Kyūshū University carried out control studies on the correlation between the types of behavior distinguished by Grossarth and the frequency of certain diseases, as well as the effectiveness of autonomy training. Although Grossarth does not speak of personality types, but of six types of behavior, the Japanese authors lack a precise distinction between the terms, so that on the one hand they correctly speak of "behavior", but also the concept of "susceptible to certain diseases", which Grossarth refuted Personality "is used incorrectly. As part of a collaboration between the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at Kyūshū University and Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , Japanese doctors and scientists, led by Jun Nagano, took part in two symposia at the Center for Multidisciplinary Research (ZMF) and founded the Japan Autonomy Training Association .

Public Challenges

In an article published in 2019 in the Journal of Health Psychology , Anthony J. Pelosi and David F. Marks raise allegations against Hans Jürgen Eysenck , with whom Grossarth-Maticek published for many years, with regard to a (supposed) connection between personality traits and specific diseases. Here u. a. Reference was made to studies from the 1990s in which the data collected by Grossarth-Maticek are questioned due to the enormous effect sizes (e.g. Fox 1992) and there were later meta-studies which showed that no other research groups could reproduce effects of a similar magnitude .

Anthony J. Pelosi insinuates Grossarth-Maticek that he falsified or incorrectly collected the data. The article ends with a call to correct publications by Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck or to withdraw them from the literature in order to prevent them from being further cited and used, for example, as a basis for therapies. In the magazine's editorial, two letters published in December 2018 were printed in which journal editor David F. Marks endorsed the opinion of Pelosi and the President of the King under the title “The Hans Eysenck affair: Time to correct the scientific record” College London (Eysenck's Alma Mater) as well as the British Psychological Society calls for efforts to have numerous publications by Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck corrected or withdrawn. The offending publications were u. a. criticized on the grounds that Eysenck's research should have been partially financed by the tobacco industry and that he is therefore assumed to have an interest in showing an association between personality and cancer (instead of an association between smoking and cancer). Grossarth-Maticek is shown in the article as an employee whom Eysenck manipulated and treated unfairly ("Any inquiry should not only investigate the alleged manipulation of data but also my concern that Eysenck appears to have mercilessly manipulated over many years an untrained (Buchanan, 2010b; Frentzel-Beyme, 1991), isolated (Eysenck, 1991b, 1997) and vulnerable (Colby, 1980) collaborator. ").

Grossarth-Maticek rejected the claims on his website, which he justified as follows:
“In fact, there is not a single study in the world in which replications of Grossarth's studies were carried out, and this despite several international requests. An objective replication study implies that the same method, the same measuring instruments and the same intervention measures are used in a similar research design by independent scientists. The study by Amelang can by no means be regarded as a replication study , as the latter neither applied the therapeutic measures nor used the effective measuring instruments. There are partial replication studies that relate only to some aspects of Grossarth's research, e.g. B. the ability to self-regulate. These also showed excellent confirmation of the results of Grossarth's studies. The high effectiveness of the results of Grossarth's studies is based on multi-causal research, which the authors do not mention at all. Our studies clearly show that multicausal research, which covers a large number of risk and protective factors, has broadly more effective results than monocausal research, which focuses on one factor. Multi-causal preventive therapy is also largely more effective than the application of a single therapeutic school. With regard to the prevention of cancer, it was found that the simultaneous use of several measures, e.g. B. behavior therapy , pleasure-oriented smoking cessation , use of tricyclic antidepressants , is far more effective than if only one of the interventions mentioned was carried out. Pelosi and Marks have not shown in any sentence that they have taken any notice of our new school of multicausal research. … Professor Eysenck never got any money from the tobacco industry to show a connection between personality and cancer. The work of Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck have consistently focused on the representation of psychophysical interactions and synergy effects in the development of chronic diseases. Since this fact can be proven in all of our internationally published empirical studies, the claims of Pelosi and Marks are untrue and are made against their better judgment. "

Grossarth announced legal action against the denunciation .

Current replication studies

Publication by Whitfield et al. (2020): "Despite criticism of the Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck data, we found empirical support for some SIRI subtypes. In accordance with the Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck personality-stress model and in accordance with two previous SIRIs Studies have found inverse associations of type 4 (healthy) scores with all-cause mortality and type 2 scores also predict CVD mortality, but no significant association between type 1 scores and cancer mortality was found.

The results of a cross-sectional study by the Medical Clinic III of the Ruhr University Bochum to investigate self-regulation and smoking as predictors of lung cancer confirm the results of Grossarth et al. found that risk factors, above all the psychosocial risk factor smoking, are significantly modulated by the factor self-regulation. In the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Test cited therein, cancer patients had a higher premorbid score for repression and depression compared to non-cancer patients . Accordingly, the understanding of the influence of the psyche on the immune system and thus on the possible development of cancer is growing in conjunction with more recent results in psychoneuroimmunology .

Fonts (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ronald Grossarth-Maticek: Self-regulation Autonomy and Health De Gruyter Verlag 2003
  2. ↑ Ronald Grossarth-Maticek and Helm Stierlin : Cancer Risks - Chances of Survival - How body, soul and social environment interact. Carl Auer Systems, Heidelberg 1998, p. 110 f.
  3. ↑ Center for multidisciplinary research and development of preventive behavioral strategies
  4. ↑ ZMF autonomy training
  5. ↑ Ronald Grossarth-Maticek: Self-regulation Autonomy and Health De Gruyter Verlag 2003
  6. ↑ Limstudies: University for Peace
  7. ↑ a b Where dogma begins, life ends. In: Interview with Grossarth-Maticek. brand eins 04/2002, accessed on January 8, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Grossarth-Maticek quoted by Theodor Dierk Petzold: Experiences with autonomy training. (PDF; 49 kB) April 9, 2005, accessed on March 12, 2011 . , P. 1
  9. ^ R. Grossarth-Maticek: Self-regulation, autonomy and health. Disease risks and social health resources in the socio-psycho-biological system , 2002, ISBN 978-3-11-017495-3 Chapter 4. Grossarth Behavioral Typology, pp. 118-120
  10. ↑ Ronald Grossarth-Maticek: Self-regulation, autonomy and health - disease factors and social health resources in the socio-psycho-biological system Table of contents with legible pages. De Gruyter Verlag 2003
  11. ^ Theodor D. Petzold: Experiences with the autonomy training according to Grossarth-Maticek - as a general practitioner with a psychosomatic focus and as an instructor in autonomy training. (PDF) Retrieved January 8, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Ronald Grossarth-Maticek: Kompentent Gesund page 10
  13. ↑ Interview with Ronald Grossarth: When love and pain lead to reconciliation Rhein Neckar Zeitung, January 2019
  14. ↑ The title protection Anzeiger No. 516, week 18/2001
  15. ^ R. Ader, N. Cohen: Behaviorally conditioned immunosuppression. In: Psychosomatic medicine. Volume 37, Number 4, 1975, pp. 333-340, ISSN  0033-3174 . PMID 1162023 .
  16. ^ Renatus Ziegler, Ronald Grossarth-Maticek: Individual Patient Data Meta-analysis of Survival and Psychosomatic Self-regulation from Published Prospective Controlled Cohort Studies for Long-term Therapy of Breast Cancer Patients with a Mistletoe Preparation (Iscador). In: Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine: eCAM. Volume 7, number 2, June 2010, pp. 157-166, doi: 10.1093 / ecam / nen025 , PMID 18955332 , PMC 2862937 (free full text).
  17. ↑ Systemic Epidemiology and Preventive Behavioral Medicine of Chronic Disease Strategies for Maintaining Health. De Gruyter, Berlin 1999
  18. ^ Synergetic preventive medicine. Strategies for health. Springer, Heidelberg 2008
  19. ↑ H. Goodare: [1] In: Jahrbuch der Psychoonkologie, page 112
  20. ↑ Ulla Franken: Emotional Competence - A Basis for Health and Health Promotion, page 122 f.
  21. ^ Grossarth-Maticek: Cognitive behavior therapy - smoking, obesity, emotional stress
  22. ↑ Hajo Schuhmacher: The ideal citizen - The reformers of the Schröder government have so far lacked the self-determined and change-loving person. A study tries to prove for the first time: Those who don't expect anything from the state live longer. Der Spiegel June 23, 2000.
  23. ↑ Wolfgang Eichhorn : The Basic Income: Appreciation - Valuations - Ways [2]
  24. ↑ Ronald Grossarth-Maticek, Johannes Eurich : The unconditional basic income in discussion
  25. ^ Reinhold Schwarz and Susanne Singer: Introduction to Psychosocial Oncology. UTB, Munich 2008, p. 37, ISBN 978-3-8252-3071-5
  26. ↑ Helm Stierlin (Psychologie heute , May 1998), quoted from: Psychologie heute: Can cancer be effectively prevented - and cured? (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 28, 2016 ; Retrieved March 19, 2011 .
  27. ^ Ronald Grossarth-Maticek: Synergetic Preventive Medicine. W. Wittman: Results of a critical analysis of the data and methods
  28. ^ Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung: Heidelberg scientist Ronald Grossarth-Maticek on radicalisms
  29. ↑ Bojan Godina: Systemic final intelligence - Theoretical transition concept on the way from intelligence to wisdom Springer Verlag 2018, page 90-100.
  30. ^ P. Green McDonald, M. O'Connell, SK Lutgendorf: Psychoneuroimmunology and cancer: a decade of discovery, paradigm shifts, and methodological innovations. In: Brain, behavior, and immunity. Volume 30 Suppl, March 2013, pp. S1-S9, doi: 10.1016 / j.bbi.2013.01.003 , PMID 23333846 , PMC 3907949 (free full text) (review).
  31. ↑ Ronald Grossarth-Maticek: Systemic Epidemiology and Preventive Behavioral Medicine De Gruyter Verlag 1999, pages 12 and 101.
  32. ^ Dierk Petzold, Nadja Lehmann: Salutogenesis, globalization, and communication
  33. ^ ECPD European Center for Peace and Development
  34. ↑ Jun Nagano, Nobuyuki Sudo, Chiharu Kubo, Suminori Kono: Lung cancer, Myocardial Infarction and the Grossarth-Maticek Personality Types - A case-control study in Fukuoka Japan
  35. ↑ Jun Nagano et al .: Rational / antiemotional behaviors in interpersonal relationships and the functional prognosis of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a Japanese multicenter, longitudinal study. In: BioPsychoSocial Medicine 2014, doi: 10.1186 / 1751-0759-8-8 .
  36. ↑ Jun Nagano: Epidemiological studies in Japan based on the Grossarth ‐ Maticek principle / theory
  37. ↑ Jun Nagano et al .: A Prospective Japanese Study of the Association between Personality and the Progression of Lung Cancer In: Internal Medicine 2006
  38. ↑ Jun Nagano et al .: The parenting attitudes and the stress of mothers predict the asthmatic severity of their children: a prospective study In: BioPsychoSocial Medicine 2010
  39. ↑ Jun Nagano et al .: Psychosocial Stress, Personality, and the Severity of Chronic Hepatitis C In: Original Research Reports 2004
  40. ↑ Chiharo Kubo: The Contribution of Professor Yujiro Ikemi to the Development of Psychosomatic Medicine in Japan
  41. ^ University of Heidelberg cooperations
  42. ↑ The Ikemi Award - Japanese Society of Psychosomatic Medicine
  43. ↑ オ ー ト ノ ミ ー ト レ ー ニ ン グ 第 １ 回 研修 会
  44. ↑ Cancer Chances
  45. ^ The Japan Autonomy Association
  46. ↑ a b c d Anthony J Pelosi: Personality and fatal diseases: Revisiting a scientific scandal . In: Journal of Health Psychology . tape 24 , no. 4 , March 2019, ISSN  1359-1053 , p. 421-439 , doi : 10.1177 / 1359105318822045 .
  47. ↑ The Cancer Personality Scandal (Part 1). In: Neuroskeptic. February 25, 2019, accessed April 12, 2019 .
  48. ^ Priori: Anthony Pelosi
  49. ↑ Bernard H. Fox: quandaries Created by Unlikely Numbers in Some of Grossarth-Maticek's Studies . In: Psychological Inquiry . tape 2 , no. 3 , July 1991, ISSN  1047-840X , pp. 242-247 , doi : 10.1207 / s15327965pli0203_5 .
  50. ↑ Andrew Steptoe, Jane Wardle, Mark Hamer, Yoichi Chida: Do stress-related psychosocial factors contribute to cancer incidence and survival? In: Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology . tape 5 , no. 8 , August 2008, ISSN  1759-4782 , p. 466-475 , doi : 10.1038 / ncponc1134 ( nature.com [accessed April 12, 2019]).
  51. ^ David F Marks: The Hans Eysenck affair: Time to correct the scientific record . In: Journal of Health Psychology . tape 24 , no. 4 , March 2019, ISSN  1359-1053 , p. 409-420 , doi : 10.1177 / 1359105318820931 .
  52. ↑ https://www.krebs-chancen.de/denunziation/ Statement from Professor Grossarth-Maticek regarding the latest denunciation based on an interview with Bojan Godina on June 5, 2019. On: krebs-chancen.de , June 5, 2019
  53. ↑ John B. Whitfield, J. George Landers, Nicholas G. Martin, Gregory J. Boyle: Validity of the Grossarth-Maticek and Eysenck personality-stress model of disease: An empirical prospective cohort study
  54. ↑ Michael Bloch: Cross-sectional study on the investigation of self-regulation and smoking as predictors for lung cancer, page 9, Bochum, 2019
  55. ↑ Michael Bloch: Cross-sectional study on the investigation of self-regulation and smoking as predictors for lung cancer Bochum, 2019
  56. ↑ Hans Krieger: The sick rebels - Ronald Grossarth-Maticek's "Revolution of the Troubled"
personal data
SURNAME Grossarth-Maticek, Ronald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest