Life
He was born in Leipzig. He initially studied medicine there, later continuing his education in Vienna under Johann Peter Frank (1745–1821). After briefly studying theology in Erlangen, he returned to Leipzig, where in 1805 he obtained his medical doctorate. In 1806 he became a lecturer at the University of Leipzig, where in 1827 he was appointed a full professor of physical medicine.
Heinroth is largely remembered for seminal work done in the field of psychiatry. His views on psychiatric thought have been described as a combination of anthropology and holistic medicine. He believed that the soul had primacy over the body, and that the body and soul interacted in several ways. Consequently, mental sickness and many somatic illnesses are caused by the soul. In 1818 he introduced the term "psychosomatic" into medical literature.
Heinroth regarded sin as a cause of mental illness. His description of sin came from a 19th century Protestant standpoint, and was also derived from an accepted European code of ethics and morality. His definition of sin wasn't based on a singular event, but rather as a period of several years of an individual striving towards earthly, bodily satisfaction. From a philosophical point of view, Heinroth espoused the teachings of Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803).
In his 1818 textbook Störungen des Seelenlebens he classified mental disorders into different categories. The three main categories were named the exaltations, the depressions and the "mixed states" (Mischung) of exaltation and weakness. He further divided the mixed states category into subcategories called 'mixed mood disorders', 'mixed mental disorders' and 'mixed volition disorders'.
Heinroth died on October 26, 1843 in Leipzig.
Read more about this topic: Johann Christian August Heinroth
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“You haf slafed your life away in de bosses’ mills and your fadhers before you and your kids after you yet. Vat is a man to do with seventeen-fifty a week? His wife must work nights to make another ten, must vork nights and cook and wash in day an’ vatfor? So that the bosses can get rich an’ the stockholders and bondholders. It is too much... ve stood it before because ve vere not organized. Now we have union... We must all stand together for union.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“When life has been well spent, age is a loss of what it can well spare,—muscular strength, organic instincts, gross bulk, and works that belong to these. But the central wisdom, which was old in infancy, is young in fourscore years, and dropping off obstructions, leaves in happy subjects the mind purified and wise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)