Creation of the first university chair in psychiatry: Johann Christian August Heinroth in Leipzig

Abstract

Much research has been done on the work of the alleged "psychicist" Johann Christian August Heinroth (1773-1843). However, his academic career has not yet been investigated in depth. For the first time, original archive material and other sources are quoted to illuminate his history and that of the first European chair of psychiatry at Leipzig University in Germany. Heinroth was first appointed associate professor (without a specific subject), and on 21 October 1811 he became the first associate professor of "psychic therapy". Despite his efforts, this chair was not transformed into a fellow professorship in 1815. In 1819, Heinroth succeeded in being appointed fellow professor, but for medicine in general and not psychiatry in particular. Thus his position was upgraded but his subject was not. After Heinroth's death in 1843, Justus Radius (1797-1884) took over psychiatry as a third, "part-time" chair. After several shifts in responsibilities, he ceased being explicitly referred to as professor of psychiatry.