Kretschmer Ernst: biography and scientific work

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

Ernst Kretschmer (1888 - 1964) - MD, an outstanding German theorist and practitioner in the field of psychiatry and psychology, widely known for his classification of human temperaments depending on physiological and morphological data. Among the 150 scientific works of Kretschmer, the work "The structure of the body and character" in 1921 became the largest event in the history of world psychology. Many times reprinted and translated, the book is included in the mandatory list of literature for psychotherapists and psychologists.

Education

Ernst Kretschmer started studying medicine in 1907 at the University of Munich. There, he took classes in psychiatry with the prominent German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, who was also Kretschmer's supervisor. Kraepelin was the first to apply psychological theory in the practice of a psychiatric hospital, and also suggested that the constitutional features of a person are associated with his mental problems. Kraepelin's ideas influencedhis student and developed with Kretschmer into a scientific theory, which was later substantiated in his Medical Psychology.

Practice

Kretschmer trained in hospitals in Hamburg and Tübingen, and at the Eppendorf hospital he underwent an intensive medical course, which, in terms of saturation of knowledge, was equivalent to a year of study at the university. He transferred to the University of Tübingen, where he took the state exam. After completing an internship, during which he did not decide on a medical specialization, he worked for several months at the Winnental Psychiatric Clinic as a junior doctor. Already there, Kretschmer began to develop his classification of body structure. After completing his studies in 1912, two years later he defended his doctorate on the topic of the manic-depressive symptomatic complex.

Professional activities

Ernst Kretschmer spent two years of military service in the neurological department at the Bad Margentheim military hospital, considering this time the most productive in his medical practice. Over a two-year period, he wrote several works that later became the basis of the book On Hysteria (1923), and also published a weighty work on paranoid reactions in traumatic brain injuries.

After graduating from military service, since 1918, Kretschmer moved to Tübingen, where he published a work on sensitive delirium of relations, recognized by some experts as "close to brilliant." From the following year, he began to work, first as an assistant, and later as chief physician, in the department of nervous diseases at the clinicTubingen University.

Having received the post of Privatdozent, since 1919 he has been giving lectures to students on the topic: "Genius people", and ten years later his popular book will be published under the same name. Significant in the life of a psychiatrist was 1921, when Ernst Kretschmer's work on the structure of the body and character brought the author wide fame in scientific circles. A year later, his "Medical Psychology" is published - one of the first scientific works in this area.

Research work

At the age of 38, having received the title of professor, Kretschmer left the University of Tübingen and moved to Marburg in 1926, where he was invited by the university authorities with the status of an ordinary professor of neurology and psychiatry. There, at the clinic, he creates a laboratory of experimental psychological research to study the reactions, functions and perceptions of people with different types of temperament from the point of view of clinical psychiatry.

In 1946, Ernst Kretschmer returned to Tübingen, where he was invited to the University Neurological Clinic for the director's post, which he held as a professor until 1959. Leaving the clinic to his students and followers, Kretschmer founded a private laboratory and ran it for the last five years of his life.

Activities of the war years

Until 1933, Ernst Kretschmer held the presidency of the Medical Society for Psychotherapy, leaving it when the organization became subordinate to the NSDAP party, in whichThe professor refused to join. His post passed to C. G. Jung. However, he signed the "vow of allegiance" to the National Socialist state and Adolf Hitler, like most university professors. As a medical officer, Kretschmer served in Marburg as a military psychologist. According to some reports, in 1941 he participated in the meetings of the advisory council regarding the "T-4", the so-called eugenic program of sterilization (killing) of mentally retarded people and patients with mental disabilities.

Scientific contributions

Kretschmer - one of the founders of the direction of medical psychology. He also introduced the concept of "key psychological trauma" as a concept that affects the most vulnerable emotional areas of a person and significantly affects the mental state of a person. The professor developed a psychotherapeutic method of active gradual hypnosis for the detailed study of imaginary images by patients, which is effectively used in the treatment of mental illness and nervous disorders.

The most impressive work was the typology of temperaments formulated and scientifically confirmed by Ernst Kretschmer, based on the structural features of the body. His long-term research activity focused on the relationship between the external physiological parameters of a person and the signs of his mental disorders. The theory set forth by Kretschmer about the relationship between body structure and character is applicable not only in psychology and various fields of medicine, but also in forensic science, sociology, pedagogy and other fields.

Body types and temperament types

It should be noted that “Body structure and character” is a scientific book written for specialists, it is not designed for a wide range of readers. In his work, the professor presented the results of examinations of 200 patients and numerous calculations. Kretschmer identified three types of body constitution that are considered basic: asthenic, picnic and athletic.

Comparing these body types with mental illness - schizophrenia and "circular" insanity (manic-depressive psychosis), - the professor established an existing connection between them. Patients of the picnic type are more prone to "circular" insanity, while asthenics are more prone to schizophrenia.

On this basis, Kretschmer identified two groups of temperament: schizophrenic and circular. Having defined body types and temperament groups, Ernst Kretschmer hypothesized that with the same type of addition, temperament qualities that are intensely noticeable in patients with mental disorders can also be present in he althy people, but in a less pronounced form.

Types of body addition

In the definitions of physique, Kretschmer gives the average weight, height, volume of individual parts of the body for each type. In a modern person, these data can differ significantly, especially with regard to height.

1. Asthenics are characterized by a slender physique, a smaller volume of the chest and hips compared to people with average data. Thinness is inherent in asthenic men, general fragility of the body is inherent in women. The neck of such people is thin, long, the shoulders are narrow, as is the flat chest. The limbs are elongated, graceful, the shape of the skull is elongated, the facial features are thin. Modern people of the asthenic type with a fragile skeletal system are often tall, although, according to Kretschmer, they are characterized by weak growth.
2. The athletic type is distinguished by a well-developed skeleton and muscles, broad shoulders and chest, narrow hips and often a flat stomach. As a rule, the growth of such people is above average. Women of this type have either an athletic build or abundant body fat, and the face may have hard, masculine features.
3. For people of the picnic type, a dense figure, medium height, a wide face, a short massive neck and a voluminous stomach are characteristic. The muscular relief is weakly expressed, the shoulders and limbs are soft, rounded. Often, such people have small and graceful feet and hands, and the joints of the ankles, hands and collarbones are rather slender. In obese picnics, extra pounds settle primarily on the stomach, as well as in the torso, sometimes calves and thighs. Women of this type are most often short in stature, their fat is deposited on the chest and abdomen, less often on the hips.

Talking about the relationship of physique and character, Ernst Kretschmer focuses on the size of the head and the shape of the skull, inherent in each of the types. He also notes that there are people who have signs of two body types, for example, asthenic and athletic, but the main ones are stillis one. With the popularity of sports, this has become especially relevant today.

A few words about the faithful companion

It is impossible not to mention the wife of Ernst Kretschmer. Photos of his family members could not be found, but the eldest son of the professor in his memoirs described in detail the portrait of his mother. Louise Pregitzer came from a family of a Lutheran priest and had a beautiful appearance and a quiet, modest, kind character. Like most women of that period, she graduated from high school and had no profession. In 1915, she and Kretschmer got married. Louise was in awe of his talent as a scientist and protected her husband from any household worries. She also took over the proofreading of his manuscripts, responding to letters, in addition to correspondence with colleagues, accompanied her husband on numerous scientific trips.

Ernst Kretschmer answered his wife with great gratitude. According to the memoirs of the son, a deep mutual understanding and trust developed between the spouses. On weekends, they often played together (he on the violin, she on the piano), read aloud to each other, to the accompaniment of Louise Kretschmer loved to perform lyrical songs. Their eldest son followed in his father's footsteps, also becoming a well-known German psychotherapist and psychiatrist, who worked primarily in the field of psychoanalysis.