He might best be understood as a social scientist who sought to integrate psychology (especially the work of Freud, Adler and Jung), sociology and religion into a unified theory of human being.
While pursuing a variety of interests, he did manage to study medicine, receiving his medical degree “a few days after the beginning of the First World War” (1984, p. 1).
At the Battle of Verdun, working as a battalion surgeon, he received a shrapnel wound that led to the loss of his left arm.
Over the next 10 to 15 years he built on his Adlerian foundations, publishing a dozen books and founding his unique school of "We-Psychology".
Kunkel continued to develop the We-Psychology and his religious psychology, while leading an active life of writing, lecturing, and psychotherapy, until his death on Easter Sunday in 1956.