Sebastian Ruf

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sebastian Ruf

Sebastian Ruf (born January 23, 1802 in Absam ; † April 11, 1877 in Hall in Tirol ) was a Tyrolean priest, psychologist and local historian.

Life

He was one of several children of the blacksmith Josef Ruf and Theresia Halweis. His father made it possible for him to attend the Latin school in Hall and the grammar school in Innsbruck. Since his wish to study medicine remained unfulfilled - there was no medical faculty in Innsbruck at the time and studying in distant Vienna could not have been financed for his father - Ruf went to Brixen to study theology there. After his ordination he worked as a pastor in Leutasch and Tobadill . In 1837 he applied for the position of local chaplain in the state insane asylum in Hall (today: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy B of the State Hospital Hall), which was also assigned to him in the absence of other suitable candidates. The daily dealings with the sick stimulated him to deal more closely with the causes of their suffering. Through self-study and close observation, he was able to acquire knowledge in the field of psychology over time , which enabled him to work as an author in this field. His particular interest was the about the middle of the 19th century very controversial discussed question of the culpability of offenders. In later years Ruf wrote several historical studies based on archival research, which are still valid today. In 1870 he was retired with the full active salary and was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit of the State of Tyrol.

Character and Varia

Ruf was a humble, humorous person, an astute thinker and excellent speaker who knew how to grasp and comment on even the most complex issues in the shortest possible time. Because of his witty and concise formulations, he enjoyed the highest reputation in scientific and literary circles. The official church viewed his activities with suspicion. But since he was loyal to his superiors as a priest, he was allowed to go. He maintained friendly contacts with scholars and writers such as Alois Flir , Adolf Pichler , Ludwig Steub , Georg Schönach and Johannes Schuler , but also knew how to address simple people. He was the uncle of the writer Walpurga Schindl .

Works

Aphorisms and anecdotes

Ruf's activity as a writer was extremely fruitful. The first smaller works appeared under the pseudonym Peter Lachmann and Paul Einsam in the “Volkskalender”. Ruf has published other things in its own writings or in newspapers, especially in the “Volks- und Schützen-Zeitung” and “Tiroler Boten”.

Scientific literature (selection)

The mental states (1852)

In the "Mental States", Ruf treated organic, psychological and life-history acquired susceptibilities to illnesses which he assumed were suitable for restricting the freedom of human activity. As such he particularly emphasized the disturbances of the mind, of these in turn the hallucinations, the instinctual disturbances and the disturbed feelings. Ruf was not concerned with criticizing the medical treatment of mentally ill patients, which was still in its infancy, but rather tried - as he himself explains in the preface - to awaken the readers' awareness that the doctrine of the attribution of guilt in criminal proceedings is founded on a very insecure basis.

The delirium (1856)

The hallucinations that are in the form of hallucinations express, illusions, visions, fantasies, dreams, obsessions and similar phenomena, dedicated call its own factory, which he called "The delirium was." With this work he made an important contribution to the assessment of mental states which cannot be assigned a pathological quality from the outset (Ruf described them as "increased states" and cited an exuberant imagination or religiously motivated visions as examples) they were "chronic" and were no longer perceived as such by those affected, could rule out the responsibility of a perpetrator. In the 10th section, Ruf deals with the "frequently recurring states of exaltation" of poets and artists who have become real madness. He names over 30 poets who suffered this fate.

The criminal justice system, its contradictions and its future (1870)

With the third paper, which was put into print, Ruf tried to make it clear to the jury entrusted with the decision-making in criminal proceedings that any assignment of guilt is doomed to failure because of the unmanageably large number of factors that influence free will. He insisted that the judges persistently ignore this fact and conceal their rigid theory by considering attenuating circumstances and by applying the extraordinary pardon. He considered this to be extremely inconsistent, since from his point of view there could be no "as well as but" in terms of crime. He therefore recommended that those applying the law drop the question of guilt completely and, in future, only focus on investigating the crime and predicting the danger. Ruf was aware that this remedy did not release the judges and jury from dealing with the psyche of the perpetrator, but he considered the danger of a perpetrator to be a more determinable substrate than fault (Criminaljustiz, p. 105 f.). His ideas about the assignment of guilt took a serious position in contemporary criminological-psychiatric discourse. They did not prevail. However, his endeavors to fathom and shed light on the question of criminal attribution from different points of view have not yet been completely forgotten. The danger prognosis propagated by him has come into the criminal law in a different form than he had imagined: This means does not replace the assignment of guilt, but is only used when the decision on the question of guilt has already been made, in that sense that the offender was not at fault for the criminal act (Section 21 of the Austrian Criminal Code).

Local historical works (selection)

  • The miners' revolt in Schwaz in 1525; (1862)
  • Chronicle of Achenthal ; (1865)
  • The violin maker Jakob Stainer von Absam in Tirol 1621–83; (1872, 1892)
  • Doctor Johannes Fuchsmagen, councilor to Duke Sigmund of Tyrol, Emperor Friedrich III. and Emperor Maximilian I .; (1877) [1]

literature

Web links

  • Psychiatric landscapes. Psychiatry and its patients in the historical region of Tyrol-South Tyrol from 1830 to the present [2]
  • Criminal justice, excerpt from Google books [3]
  • The delirium, excerpt from Google books [4]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Benjamin Kocherscheidt: German insane doctors and insane pastors: A contribution to the history of psychiatry and institutional pastoral care in the 19th century. Dissertation, University of Hamburg 2010. urn : nbn: de: gbv: 18-49053