Carl Gustav Jung e la Veggente di Prevorst

La figura di Justinus Kerner e la sua opera più famosa, La veggente di Prevorst, vengono spesso citate da Carl Gustav Jung. L'analista svizzero si interessò a questo caso clinico di possessione durante gli anni dei suoi studi universitari e nei primi anni della sua professione, quando si occupava di schizofrenia e praticava la psichiatria. Successivamente, quando aveva già formulato la sua teoria sulle personalità, ritornò a citare La veggente di Prevorst anche in maniera estesa, come fece durante i seminari del 1933-34 al Politecnico di Zurigo. Nel lavoro di Kerner Jung vedeva un antesignano della propria opera. Scopo di questo lavoro è presentare La veggente di Prevorst, spesso ricordata nel solo campo della parapsicologia, come scrittura di un caso clinico in senso moderno e, soprattutto, evidenziare come Jung sia stato influenzato da questo esempio di caso clinico proto-psicoanalitico.

Karl August Varnhagen von Ense – „szara eminencja” dziewiętnastowiecznej niemieckiej publicystyki politycznej

Karl August Varnhagen von Ense – an “éminence grise” of German Political Journalism in the 19th Century Karl August Varnhagen von Ense (1785–1858) was a German diplomat, biographer and archivist-collector. He worked as a tutor in the homes of several families of the wealthy Jewish bourgeoisie. This allowed him to get in touch with prominent poets and writers of romanticism, such as Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Adelbert von Chamisso, Justinus Kerner and Ludwig Uhland. During the Napoleonic Wars Varnhagen served in Austrian and Russian army. 1814 he married Rahel Levin, a Jewish writer who hosted one of the most prominent German literary salons in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their home in Berlin became the meeting-place of high civil servants, philosophers, writers and artists. Although Varnhagen developed a reputation as an critical writer and journalist, he is most famous as a biographer and archivist-collector. The article investigates Varnhagen’s activities as a journalist and demonstrates journalism as an unknown and unexplored but significant and valuable aspekt of his work, which is substantial in volume.

Zu ausgewählten Aspekten des (Un-)Menschlichen im lyrischen Werk von Justinus Kerner

Gegenstand der Analyse sind ausgewählte lyrische Texte von Justinus Kerner, in dessen Werk sich die Faszination für die Frage nach der Präsenz der Welt der Geister in der irdischen kundtut, was zum Beispiel in seinem berühmten Text Die Seherin von Prevorst sichtbar wird. Das Anliegen des Beitrags ist es, zu untersuchen, welche Beobachtungen sich in Bezug auf die Natur des Menschen, das (Un-)Menschliche im Menschen, und die Verflechtung der materiellen und geistigen Welt in Kerners lyrischem Werk anstellen lassen. Insbesondere wird die Aufmerksamkeit auf die Todesmotivik fokussiert.

Justinus Kerner and mesmerism

IntroductionThe German physician and poet Justinus Kerner (1786–1862), Swabian public health officer in Weinsberg, is well known as an allround, even an epoch-making personality in his time and a natural scientist typical for late romanticism. His greatest merit is not due to his poetic scripts, but to his scientific work. This begins with his medical dissertation “Observata de functione singularum partium auris”, a mine of experimental behaviourism.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) on Kerner's way of treating patients.MethodsA literature research was done on Kerner and mesmerism.ResultsKerner's first contact with animal magnetism was in 1797, when he was magnetized and healed by Dr. Eberhard Gmelin, one of the first mesmerian doctors in Germany, because of his nervous stomach. With the “Seeress of Prevorst” the author ventured to advance into deep layers of the soul unknown so far. During the years 1826–1829 Justinus Kerner treated Friederike Hauffe (1801–1829), the “Seeress of Prevorst”, at his Weinsberg domicile. In the year 1829 he published the description of her life and disease with the title “The Seeress of Prevorst, being revelations concerning the inner-life of man, and the interdiffusion of a world of spirits in the one we inhabit”.ConclusionsKerner was very much influenced by Mesmer and left volumes of psycho-pathological case histories that helped to prepare a way for a medicine more psychotherapeutically founded.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.

Botox – A New Weapon in a Dentist's Arsenal

Botulinum toxin was first used therapeutically by a German physician Justinus Kerner (1786-1862). Trade name BOTOX was given by Allergan, Inc, Irvine, Calif for treating strabismus, blepharospasm, and hemifacial spasm. It is neurotoxin derived from an anaerobic bacteria Clostridium botulinum. The toxin inhibits the release of acetylcholine (ACH), a neurotransmitter responsible for the activation of muscle contraction and its administration results in diminution of tone in the injected muscle. It has found a variety of uses in dentistry like treatment of gummy smile, masseteric hypertrophy, bruxism, temporomandibular disorders and so on. It is a minimally invasive and cosmetically effective method of treating several conditions with excessive muscle contraction.