Thomas Rütten

Thomas Rütten (* 1960 in Krefeld ) is a German doctor , medical historian , author and translator .

After studying medicine , history , classical philology and musicology in Bonn and later in Münster and obtaining a license to practice medicine, Rütten received his doctorate with a medical-historical dissertation on Democritus at the Institute for Theory and History of Medicine at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . It also contains a medical and cultural historical examination of the clinical picture of melancholy . He is doing his habilitation there with a work on the history of the Hippocratic Oath . After research stays in Wolfenbüttel, Princeton and Paris, Rütten is now Reader in the History of Medicine at the School of Historical Studies at Newcastle University , England.

In addition, Rütten has worked as a literary translator and has transferred works by Pauline Melville , Hanif Kureishi and Dave Eggers . He was also involved in the translation of Anne Fadiman's The Spirit catches you and you Fall Down .

His main areas of work are ancient, especially Hippocratic medicine and its history of reception.

Works (selection)

• Democritus - laughing philosopher and sanguine melancholic. A pseudo Hippocratic story . Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, Cologne: EJ Brill, 1992. Excerpts available online
• Stories from the Hippocratic Oath . CD-ROM. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.

Web links

• Thomas Rütten at the School of Historical Studies at Newcastle University, with a list of publications