Hans Prinzhorn (June 6 1886 - June 14 1933) was a German psychiatrist and art historian.
Born in Hemer, Westphalia, he studied art history and philosophy at the University of Vienna, receiving doctorate in 1908. He then went to England to receive voice training, as he planned to become a professional singer. He later received training in medicine and psychiatrics, serving as an Army surgeon during World War I.
In 1919 he became assistant to Karl Wilmanns at the psychiatric hospital of the University of Heidelberg. His task was to extend an earlier collection of art created by mentally ill started by Emil Kraepelin. When he left in 1921 the collection was extended to more than 5000 works by about 450 "cases".
In 1922 he published his first and most influential book Bildnerei der Geisteskranken (Artistry of the Mentally Ill), richly illustrated with examples from the collection. While his collegues react reserved, the art scene is enthusiastic about it. Jean Dubuffet was highly inspired by the works, and also the coining of the term Outsider art refers to his work.
The book is mainly concerned with the borderline between psychiatry and art, illness and self-expression. It represents one of the first attempts to analyse the work of the mentally ill.
After short stays at sanatories in Zurich, Dresden and Wiesbaden, he opened a psychotherapical praxis in Frankfurt in 1925, but without much success. He continued to write books, which however never reached his first one. His hopes to find a permanent position at a university were never fulfilled. Disillusionated by the profession failures and after three failed marriages he moved to an aunt in Munich and retreated from public life, living from giving lectures and writing essays. He died in 1933 in Munich of typhus.
Shortly after his death the Prinzhorn collection was stowed away in the attics of the university. In 1938 a few items were displayed in the Nazi propaganda exhibition Entartete Kunst. Since 2001 the collection is on display in a former oratory of the University of Heidelberg.
Books
- Hans Prinzhorn, Artistry of the mentally ill: a contribution to the psychology and psychopathology of configuration, translated by Eric von Brockdorff from the second German edition, with an introduction by James L. Foy, (Wien, New York: Springer-Verlag), 1995. ISBN 3211826394
External links
Last updated: 10-23-2005 03:59:36
