Hans Prinzhorn

Born in Hemer, Westphalia, he studied art history and philosophy at the universities of Tübingen, Leipzig and Munich, then receiving his doctorate under Theodor Lipps with the dissertation "Gottfried Semper's basic aesthetic views" in 1908.

During the First World War, he assisted a military surgeon and in 1913 he finally started studying medicine, receiving his training at the universities of Freiburg and Strasbourg.

Ein Beitrag zur Psychologie und Psychopatologie der Gestaltung (Artistry of the mentally ill: A Contribution to the Psychology and Psychopathology of Configuration), richly illustrated with examples from the collection.

It represents one of the first attempts to analyse the work of the mentally ill. After short stays at sanatoriums in Zürich, Dresden and Wiesbaden, he began a psychotherapy practice in Frankfurt in 1925, but without much success.

Disillusioned by professional failures, and after three failed marriages, he moved in with an aunt in Munich and retreated from public life, making a living from giving lectures and writing essays.