Werner German

Werner German (2009)

Werner Deutsch (born August 4, 1947 in Hau ; † October 12, 2010 in Meseberg , Gransee) was professor of psychology at the Technical University of Braunschweig (head of the department for developmental psychology), psychodramatist and trained tenor.

His main research interests were the development of speaking ( psycholinguistics ), singing and drawing, identity development, especially in twins, the history of psychology ( William and Clara Stern ) and autism .

Life

Werner Deutsch was born on August 4, 1947 in Hau on the outskirts of Kleve / Niederrhein. From 1954 to 1958 he attended the Sankt Johannes elementary school in his hometown, after which he switched to the grammar school in Kleve (1958-1966). He obtained the Abitur in the ancient language branch and immediately after his school days (1966) began studying psychology, linguistics and at the University of Münster iW His studies were interrupted by military service (Panzergrenadier in Hanover-Bothfeld), which he did due to his conscientious objection but not fully completed. In 1968 he resumed his studies at the University of Marburg / Lahn . The focus here was on psychology as an academic natural science. During this time, with the support of Karl Heinz Stäcker, he got his first insights into a psychology with schizophrenic patients, drug-addicted adolescents and murderers in prison for life.

In 1972 he completed his studies in psychology with a diploma and immediately became a research assistant at Theo Herrmann in Marburg . From 1972 to 1976 he examined children, adolescents and adults in terms of language psychology, gave his first lectures, published various writings (together with Theo Herrmann) and gained teaching experience up to a doctorate (Dr. rer. Nat.). During this time he completed his psychodrama training at the Moreno Institute in Stuttgart with Heika Straub and was trained as a singer by Dorothea Brinkmann.

From 1976 to 1977 Werner Deutsch worked as a scholarship holder with Eve and Herbert Clark at Stanford University and became known in the field of international psycholinguistics . During this time he rediscovered the forgotten works of Clara and William Stern . From 1977 to 1987 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen (Netherlands). There he worked in the working groups of Willem Levelt and Wolfgang Klein and did research a. a. at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefeld and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In addition, he took on several teaching positions and visiting professorships at the universities of Nijmegen, Mannheim, Göttingen and Umea in Sweden.

From April 1, 1987 until his death he was professor of psychology at the Technical University of Braunschweig (head of the department for developmental psychology). His teaching duties included the subjects of developmental psychology, differential psychology, cognitive psychology and the "psychology of speaking and acting". During his time in Braunschweig, Werner Deutsch was once dean of the department and three times a member of the Senate of the Carolo-Wilhelmina. He was known for his joy in the interdisciplinary exchange in the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft , the scientific-philosophical and the aesthetic colloquium and held the position of liaison lecturer of the German National Academic Foundation and the Episcopal Cusanuswerk with a vote on the graduate committee. In addition to his scientific career, he always pursued other interests. B. as a tenor together with other musicians in public or supervised psychodrama groups.

Positioning within developmental psychology

Werner Deutsch's approach to psychological phenomena has changed significantly over time due to his interest in the works of William Stern . Previously, as part of his Max Planck research, he was more interested in examining general principles of human development using as large samples as possible, but later on he focused on the individual and Stern's metatheory of critical personalism . With this focus Werner Deutsch moved increasingly away from the so-called psychological mainstream. Werner Deutsch was convinced by Stern's principle that human beings are first and foremost unitas multiplex , that is, the entirety in diversity that cannot be split up and then put back together from individual parts. For this reason, he valued u. a. Development diaries as a rich and reliable source of data, as the individual facets of human experience come together to form a unit.

Fonts (selection)

Books

• with T. Herrmann (1976). Psychology of object naming. Huber, Bern.
• (1976). Linguistic redundancy and object identification. Marburg: Dissertation.
• (Ed.) (1981). The Child's Construction of Language. Academic Press, London.
• (Ed.) (1991). About the hidden topicality of William Stern . Lang, Frankfurt a. M.
• with H. Schneider (Ed.) (2000) Sexuality - Sexual Identity. Mattes, Heidelberg.
• with M. Wenglorz (Ed.) (2001). Central developmental disorders. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart.
• with G. Rickheit and T. Herrmann (eds.) (2002) Handbuch der Psycholinguistik . de Gruyter, Berlin.

Essays and book articles

• (1977). Influence of learning type, reaction mode and cognitive level of development on the acquisition of linguistic behavior. Journal for Experimental and Applied Psychology, XXIV (1), 21–34.
• (1978). The influence of the linguistic environment on the acquisition of family names. In: U. Dressler & W. Meid (Eds.): Proceedings of the XII. International Congress of Linguistics, Innsbruck Contributions to Linguistics. (Pp. 261-263). Institute for Linguistics at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
• (1979). The conceptual impact of linguistic input. Journal of Child Language, 6,313-327.
• (1983). How realistic is a unified theory of language acquisition? First Language, 4th , 143-145.
• (1984). Language control processes in development. In: H. Bouma & DG Bouwhuis: Attention and Performance X. (pp. 395-416). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
• (1984). Possession and property as reflected in the development of speech. In: C. Eggers (Hrsg.): Attachments and possessiveness in the toddler. (Pp. 255-276). Munich: Urban and Schwarzenberg.
• (1986). Speaking and understanding: two sides of the same coin? In H.-G. Bosshardt (Ed.), Perspectives on Language, Interdisciplinary Contributions in Memory of Hans Hörmann. (Pp. 232-263). Bern: de Gruyter.
• (1989). From the end to the beginning: A process model for the development of referential communication. Journal for Literature and Linguistics , 7/3, 18–32.
• (1992). The changing art of reading. Lezen En Luisteren, 2. , 9-17.
• (1992). Hoe oud is het oderzoek naar taalverwerving? In: P. Jordens & A. Wijnands: Fourth NET - Symposium Dept. Of Applied Linguistics / TTW. (Pp. 1-5). Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.
• (1994). With the zeitgeist against the zeitgeist. The Beginnings of the Object Naming Research Program. In: H.-J. Kornadt, J. Grabowski, R. Mangold-Allwinn (eds.): Language and cognition. Perspectives on modern language psychology. (Pp. 15-36). Spectrum, Heidelberg.
• (1996). Speaking and language in development. In: H. Schneider (Ed.): Language: Language Development - Language in the Psychotherapeutic Process. (Pp. 1-14). Mattes, Heidelberg.
• (1997). "I Learn Everything by Myself". The Role of Dialogue in Language Development. Polish Quarterly of Developmental Psychology, 3. (2), 115-135.
• (2003). Language Development from Below: A Mosaic Theory. In: H. Richter, W. Schmitz (Ed.): Communication - a key concept in the human sciences. (Pp. 111-121). Nodus, Münster.
• (2009). Reference to self. A Sternian approach to the first steps in language development. In: W. Mack, G. Reuter: Social roots of consciousness. Psychological and philosophical contributions. (Pp. 187-203). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin.

To William and Clara Stern

• (1986). The diaries of Clara and William Stern . In: M. Amelang (Ed.): Report on the 35th Congress of the DGPs. (Volume 1, p. 363). Hogrefe, Göttingen.
• (1994). Not just wife and mother - Clara Stern's place in the history of psychology. In: Psychology and History, 3/4. Pp. 171-182.
• (1995). Four ways to William Stern. In: K Pawlik (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Psychology. Methods of Differential Psychology. Pp. 125-153. Hogrefe, Göttingen.
• (1997). The focus is on the person: the psychologist and philosopher William Stern (1871–1938). In: M. Hassler, J. Wertheimer (ed.): The exodus from Nazi Germany and the consequences. Pp. 73-90. Attempto, Tuebingen.
• (2000). William Stern. Psychology of early childhood to the age of six (1914). In: HE Lück, R. Miller, G. Sewz-Vosshenrich (eds.): Classics of Psychology. Pp. 116-129. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart.
• (2001). From the nursery to science. Developmental diary studies. In: I. Behnken, J. Zinnecker (Ed.): Handbook Childhood. Pp. 340-351. Kallmeyer, Velber.
• with C. el Mogharbel, (2011). Clara and William Stern's conception of a developmental science. In: European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 8. (2), 135–156.

More texts

• (1991). The mirror and identity: considerations and findings from the perspective of developmental psychology . In: JE Neuser, R. Kriebel (Ed.): Projection. Pp. 157-171. Hogrefe, Göttingen.
• (1997). How creativity grows, passes and - sometimes - emerges again in the development of drawing. In: O. Kruse (Ed.): Creativity as a resource for change and growth. Pp. 335-348. DGVT, Tübingen.
• (1998). Become, who you are! Identity and Ontogenetic Development. In: H. Schneider (Ed.): Puberty and Adolescence. Pp. 65-76. Mattes, Heidelberg and in: B. Rebe (Ed.): Humanity - Change - Utopia. Pp. 247-261. Georg Olms, Hildesheim.
• (2000). It's (im) possible to become a genius! The development of drawing. In: C. van Lieshout, P. Heymans: Developing talent across the life span. Pp. 185-199. Psychology Press, East Sussex.
• (2000). The spruce and the palm tree: On the development of gender and sexuality in humans. In: W. Deutsch, H Schneider (Ed.): Sexuality - Sexual Identity. Pp. 19-33. Mattes, Heidelberg.
• (2002). Not anything goes! Incest and incest taboo. In: H. Schneider (Ed.): Sexuality - its development - its finitude - its disorders. Mattes, Heidelberg.
• (2005). Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier. In: R. Stauf, C. Berghahn (Hrsg.): Weltliteratur II: Eine Braunschweiger Vorlesung. Pp. 365-377. Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld.

Movie

• M. Wenglorz, W. Deutsch (1997). Samantha - The development of a girl with an autistic disorder. Göttingen: Institute for Scientific Film

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Deutsch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage of Werner Deutsch including some obituaries on tu-braunschweig.de
• “Makes what is human visible behind technology!” - Interview with Werner Deutsch on Zukunft-technik-enthaben.de