Thomas Gebauer (psychologist)

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Thomas Gebauer (born April 4, 1955 in Konstanz on Lake Constance) is a German psychologist . He is the spokesman for the medico international foundation based in Frankfurt am Main.

Life

Gebauer attended the High State School in Hanau. After graduating from high school, he studied psychology and sociology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, played theater and was involved in political youth work. In 1979 he graduated with a diploma in psychology. Since then, Gebauer has been working for the Frankfurt aid organization medico international. There he was initially employed in the public relations department, then as head of the project area and from 1996 to 2018 as managing director. He has been the spokesperson for the foundation since 2019.

Politics and profession

Influenced by critical theory , Gebauer worked on the development of a critical concept of help . Fundamental to him are a political understanding of humanitarian action, the ideology-critical analysis of aid in the context of hegemony and a political concept of human rights . Convinced that health is socially dependent, Gebauer advocates a practice of solidarity that aims to create socially just and democratically structured conditions. Gebauer founded the psychosocial focus of medico international as early as the mid-1980s and worked with the psychoanalyst Marie Langer , who helped with the revolutionary upheaval in Nicaragua from her Mexican exile . Through Marie Langer he met the ethno-psychoanalysts Goldy Parin-Matthèy and Paul Parin , with whom he was in lively exchange until their death.

In the course of caring for war invalids, Gebauer came across the problem of landmines in the late 1980s. Together with Bobby Muller, President of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, he launched the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in 1991 , which became a worldwide movement within a few years. In 1997 the campaign was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to the creation of the “International Convention to Ban Anti-Personnel Mines” ( Ottawa Convention for short ) . Gebauer was part of the ICBL delegation that received the award in Oslo.

In the years that followed, Gebauer primarily dealt with the political and ethical dimensions of aid and solidarity. Again and again he criticized the instrumentalization of human rights for the political safeguarding of existing inequality. An expression of the "securitization of politics" he describes is the superimposition of law and justice through an all-dominating security discourse, but also changes in warfare strategies. At the same time, he defends a solidarity-based commitment aimed at emancipation against the, according to Gebauer, increasing reduction to a technocratic practice of adjustment. Help must always be defended, criticized and overcome at the same time. For Gebauer, the prerequisite for structural changes at the international level is the existence of an independent transnational public , which is only in the process of becoming.

Gebauer is involved in international networks, including a. in the globally active “People's Health Movement”, and participates in the development of global health policy strategies that understand health as a global common good that can only be achieved with solidarity-based responsibility. He is also one of the initiators of the Joint Action and Learning Initiative, an international platform that advocates a framework convention for global health. She attacks u. a. the idea he advocated to replace the previous interest-based global health financing with a legally binding treaty on an equalization financing mechanism (globalization of the solidarity principle).

Honors

  • Thomas Gebauer was part of the delegation that accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1997 for the “International Campaign to Ban Landmines”, which medico international co-founded.
  • Awarded the Goethe plaque from the city of Frankfurt am Main (2014)

Selected publications

To the criticism of the help

  • Useful disasters - course book discussion with Sven Hillenkamp. In: Kursbuch 162 - Ritter, Tod und Teufel / War, Terror und Pandemien. No. 4/2005, Hamburg, ISBN 3-938899-27-1 , pp. 108-113.
  • Critical emergency and development aid. In: Ulrich Brand, Bettina Lösch, Stefan Thimmel: From “Aesthetics of Resistance” to “Civil Disobedience”. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2007, pp. 114/115.
  • Microcredit: competition instead of solidarity. In: Gerhard Klas, Philip Mader (eds.): Making returns and doing good? Microcredit and the Consequences of Neoliberal Development Policy. Campus, Frankfurt 2014, pp. 143–150.
  • Beyond Help: From Charity to Solidarity. In: Sheets for German and International Politics. 4/2014, Blätter Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin 2014, pp. 73–79.
  • Fit for the disaster !? In: Publik-Forum 17/2015, Publik-Forum Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Oberursel 2015, ISSN  0343-1401 , pp. 22-23.
  • The colonization of the human imagination. Reflections on the ego collective , in: »ego collective. Peter Zizka «, ed. by Anna Duque y González and Matthias Wagner K , Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König , Cologne 2018, pp. 360–368, ISBN 978-3-96098-364-4 .
  • Thomas Gebauer / Ilija Trojanow : Help? Help! - Ways out of the global crisis , Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt 2018, ISBN 978-3596701889 .

Disarmament and arms control

  • The landmine campaign. In: Anne Jenischen, Natasche Marks, Tome Sandevski (eds.): Arms transfers and human rights. Deals with death. Lit Verlag, Münster u. a. 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6117-1 , pp. 141-154.
  • Arms control and non-state actors - an opportunity for new coalitions. In: Götz Neuneck, Christian Möller (ed.): The future of arms control. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2005, ISBN 3-8329-1254-1 , pp. 181-190.
  • Gebauer, Thomas: laudation. In: Awarding of the Hessian Peace Prize 2012 to Elisabeth Decrey Warner . Hessischer Landtag, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-923150-51-9 , pp. 19-27.

On human rights, war and security

  • Between pacification and escalation. On the role of aid organizations in areas of civil war. In: Werner Ruf (ed.): Political economy of violence. State collapse and the privatization of violence and war. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-3747-8 , pp. 281-290.
  • World Citizen or Social Exclusion. In: Norbert Copray (Ed.): Ethics Yearbook. Fairness Foundation, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-00-013534-0 , pp. 75–81.
  • Civil-military cooperation. NGOs in the context of the militarization of the humanitarian. In: Johannes M. Becker, Herbert Wulf (Hrsg.): Afghanistan: A war in a dead end. Lit, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10460-1 , pp. 145-160.
  • Help or aid? About medical care for victims of war in times of new wars. In: Melissa Larner, James Peto, Colleen M. Schmitz (ed. For the German Hygiene Museum and the Welcome Collection): War and Medicine. Wallstein, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8353-0486-4 , pp. 225-236.
  • Politics as a security measure. About the creeping erosion of law and democracy, in: Contradiction 70: Militarisierung, Krieg und Frieden, Zurich, 36 Jg./2 Hj. 2017, ISBN 978-3-8586-9771-4 , pp. 7-16.

To the criticism of NGOs

  • ... not chosen by anyone! About the democratic legitimation of NGOs. In: Ulrich Brand, Alex Demirovic, Christoph Görg, Joachim Hirsch (eds.): Non-governmental organizations in the transformation of the state. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-89691-493-6 , pp. 95-120.

To global health policy

  • The Power of Money: Major WHO reform is overdue. In: Behavioral Therapy & Psychosocial Practice. No. 4/2011, dgvt-Verlag, Tübingen, pp. 961-964 (also in Mabuse. No. 193, 2011).
  • Foundations for Global Health in the Post Millennium Development Goals. In: Social Security. Journal for work and social affairs. 4/2011, Bund Verlag, ISSN  0490-1630 , pp. 147–152.
  • Institutionalizing Solidarity for Health. In: John Coggon; Swati Gola (Ed.): Global Health and International Community Ethical, Political and Regulatory Challenges. Bloomsburg, London a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-1-78093-397-9 , pp. 219-232.
  • From charity to solidarity. Dimensions and possibilities of a global health policy. In: Joachim Hirsch, Oliver Brüchert, Eva-Maria Krampe u. a. (Ed.): Social policy thought differently: Social infrastructure. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-89965-577-3 , pp. 192-211.
  • Universal health coverage anchored in the right to health. In: Bulletin of the World Health Organization. January 1, 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ medico international: Portrait - Our new one. Retrieved March 11, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c Frankfurt faces: Thomas Gebauer. on: faz.net , April 29, 2004, accessed July 31, 2014
  3. ↑ medico international: Effective Altruism - Such help perpetuates misery. Retrieved March 11, 2019 .
  4. ↑ cf. World Citizen or Social Exclusion. In: Norbert Copray (Ed.): Ethics Yearbook. Fairness Foundation, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-00-013534-0 , pp. 75–81; Institutionalizing Solidarity for Health. In: John Coggon, Swati Gola (Ed.): Global Health and International Community Ethical, Political and Regulatory Challenges. Bloomsburg, London a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-1-78093-397-9 , pp. 219-232.
  5. ↑ Psychoanalysis - Politics - Migration. at: medico.de , accessed on July 31, 2014.
  6. ↑ 20 years in the life of a Nobel Peace Prizewinning campaign. on: icbl.org
  7. ↑ The Nobel Peace Prize 1997. from nobelprize.org , accessed July 31, 2014.
  8. ↑ cf. Civil-military cooperation. NGOs in the context of the militarization of the humanitarian. In: Johannes M. Becker, Herbert Wulf (Hrsg.): Afghanistan: A war in a dead end. Lit, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10460-1 , pp. 145-160; World Citizen or Social Exclusion. In: Norbert Copray (Ed.): Ethics Yearbook. Fairness Foundation, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-00-013534-0 , pp. 75–81.
  9. ↑ The securitization of politics. on: medico.de , May 27, 2010, accessed on July 31, 2014.
  10. ↑ Beate Lakotta: Civilians in the crosshairs. In: Der Spiegel. 14/2009, accessed on July 31, 2014.
  11. ↑ Beyond Help: From Charity to Solidarity. at: blaetter.de , accessed on July 31, 2014.
  12. ↑ Foundations for Global Health in the Post Millennium Development Goals. In: Social Security. Journal for work and social affairs. 4/2011, Bund Verlag, ISSN  0490-1630 , pp. 147–152.
  13. ^ A b The Joint Action and Learning Initiative: Towards a Global Agreement on National and Global Responsibilities for Health. May 10, 2011, accessed July 31, 2014.
  14. ^ Goethe plaque , on: frankfurt.de , accessed on September 22, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Gebauer, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychologist, human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH April 4th 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Constance , Germany