Jilek, Wolfgang G

Abstract

Abstract Wolfgang G. Jilek was born on November 25, 1930 in Tetschen, now Decin, in northern Czech Republic. His first language was German and his family's national identity Austrian. He is a Canadian citizen through immigration, and the Austrian government re‐conferred Austrian citizenship on him due to scientific merit. Jilek studied medicine at the Universities of Munich, Vienna, and Innsbruck. In Vienna, Viktor Frankl was one of his teachers and became a lifelong friend. Jilek received the Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Innsbruck in 1956. He obtained specialized training in psychiatry at the Burgholzli Psychiatric University Clinic in Zurich, where a major long‐term influence was Manfred Bleuler; and at the General Hospital and Queen Mary Veterans Hospital, both in Montreal. He also holds master's degrees in social psychiatry and social anthropology from McGill University and University of British Columbia respectively. Jilek is an honorary member of the Austrian and German Societies for Ethnomedicine and an honorary advisor to the Transcultural Psychiatry Section of the World Psychiatric Association, which he served as secretary and chairperson for 16 years.