Hanscarl Leuner

He pursued a medical degree between 1939 and 1946 in Frankfurt/Main, Würzburg and Marburg Universities, which was interrupted by a period of military service during World War II.

[citation needed] At the request of Klaus Conrad, he moved to Göttingen in 1959 and habilitated there with a thesis on model psychoses that he had completed in Marburg.

[citation needed] In the late 1940s, during his time in Marburg, Hanscarl Leuner began exploring the therapeutic potential of imagination inspired by Ernst Kretschmer's work.

This method, known as psycholytic psychotherapy, involves the controlled and medical administration of psychoactive and psychedelic substances to enhance the psychotherapeutic process.

[citation needed] In response, Leuner founded the Working Group for Catathymic Imagery and Imaginative Processes in Psychotherapy (AGKB) in 1974.