Heinrich Philipp August Damerow

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Heinrich Philipp August Damerow (December 28, 1798 - September 22, 1866) was a German psychiatrist who was born in Stettin. In 1822 he earned his doctorate in Berlin and for a period of time afterwards was a private lecturer and professor. In 1836 he became director of a mental institution near Halle.

Damerow was one of the more influentual psychiatrists during the mid-19th century. He was an advocate of an holistic approach to treating mental illness. He believed that a physician must view the patient as a union of body, mind and soul. He was also an advocate of the teachings of philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and believed in the Prussian ideal that the state is the manifestation of divine reason. Damerow was editor of the psychiatric journal Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie.

Bibliography:

• Über die relative Verbindung der Irren-, Heil- und Pfleganstalten (Leipzig 1840)
• Zur Kretinen- und Idiotenfrage (Berlin 1858)
• Über die Grundlage der Mimik und Physiognomie, als freier Beitrag zur Anthropologie und Psychiatrie (Berlin 1860)