[Teaching medical history in the German medical curriculum: prospects and risks].

The paper analyses the special situation of teaching medical history in German medical schools. According to German law (Approbationsordnung für Arzte) medical history is part of an interdisciplinary subject (Querschnittsbereich) which is called "history, theory, ethics of medicine". The paper presents some historical attempts to show the relevance of medical history for medical education, explores the present context of teaching medical history in Germany, and gives some recommendations for teaching medical history under the new circumstances.

From Psychical treatment to psychoanalysis: considerations on the misdating of an early Freud text and on a hitherto overlooked addition to it (here reproduced).

Freud's early paper Psychical (or mental) treatment, first published in a family reference book for educated lay persons, was reproduced in the Gesammelte Werke with a stated publication date of 1905. This date was subsequently called into question owing to certain parts of the subject-matter (the use of hypnosis and suggestion in 'mental treatment'), and the contribution was erroneously assigned, for instance by James Strachey, to the year 1890. This error is corrected in the present paper.

[Health and justice].

The paper discusses issues of justice related to health and illness. The special normative status of health is justified based on Norman Daniels' theory of just health. As the health status of individuals is not only determined by access to health care services, the relationship between social inequalities and health status is described empirically and evaluated from an ethical perspective.

[Ethics in medical education].

Ethics education is a topic of growing importance in the medical curriculum. Medical ethics can be defined as the skilled professional discourse on moral issues in patient care, medical research and the health-care system. Ethical competence comprises conscientiousness and the ability to give reasons for intuitive moral convictions.

[Cultural aspects of ethical decisions at the end of life and cultural competence].

Advances in medical science and technology offer new medical interventions at the end of life. These new medical measures create new ethical issues, which increase in complexity in a multicultural society. This paper discusses three cases, in which cultural value systems play a decisive role.

["Dieu et cerveau, rien que Dieu et cerveau!" Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) and the neurosciences of this time].

The impact of Johann Gottfried von Herder on the broad spectrum of the history of ideas can hardly be estimated by separate categories derived from individual disciplines. It transcends the spheres of philosophy, theology, historiography and even medical anthropology--also because Herder, unlike many of his contemporary philosophers and hommes de lettres, was particularly interested in the neurophysiological and -anatomical investigations of his time. Herder's universal interest in human learning is reflected in numerous personal contacts to contemporary academic scholars and natural scientists, such as the Swiss theologian Johann Caspar Lavater, whose physiognomic doctrine mapped out a comprehensive research programme on character analysis, or the Mainz anatomist Samuel Thomas von Soemmering.

[Magnus Hirschfeld and monism: mutual fertilization or exchange of errors?].

When Ernst Haeckel was buried in Jena on February 12th, 1919, some of his supporters and followers were allowed to make speeches. One of them was the sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, although he had entered the German-Monist-Club only six years after its foundation in 1906. He became one of the most important monists, because he worked in the fields of sexuality and eugenics, and was head of discourse for many years.

[Summary: from "psychical treatment" to psychoanalysis. Remarks on the misdating of an early text of Freud and publication of a previously unnoticed addition to it].

Freud's early article, "Psychical (or mental) treatment," first appeared in a health textbook for educated lay people. It was included in his Gesammelte Werke with the publication date of 1905. Subsequently, this date was questioned because the text dealt mainly with hypnosis and suggestion, so James Strachey, among others, erroneously changed it to 1890.

[Utilitarianism or communitarianism as the foundation of public health ethics?].

The goal of public health is to maximise health, and to promote the common good. These two assumptions frequently give rise to claims that public health is founded on utilitarian or communitarian ethics, respectively. In this paper, these claims are critically examined and rejected.

[Patient history--a perspective for all sources of ancient medicine? Reflections on patient cases in the Epidemics manuscripts of the Corpus Hippocraticum].

The perspectives of patients are an important element of modern medical historiography. The enriching results particularly depend on the sources' self-reflecting and introspective content. For research on ancient medicine has traditionally focussed on concepts of medical thinking, the question arises, whether and to what amount the patient's-historical approach is a productive device for the sources of ancient medicine.

[Advance health care directives: perception and reality. Results of a random survey].

Background: Knowledge and values prevalent with regard to advanced directive in the general German population have so far not been adequately taken into account as a topic of regulatory initiatives. This leads to unnecessary uncertainty about actual decision-making concerning therapeutic measures.

Methods: 95 randomly chosen persons were included in a differentiated, online-supported survey consisting of multiple-choice questions as well as open interview questions, both question types addressing knowledge and values prevalent in our populations concerning advanced health care directives.

[Moderate financial incentives for organ donation].

Despite many efforts to increase the number of organs for transplantations, there is still a worrying shortage of transplantable organs - in Germany as well as in almost every developed country. One possibility to increase the amount of organs is the introduction of financial incentives for cadaveric organ donation. In this article, several forms of moderate financial incentives for organ donation are described.

[Medical ethical aspects of culture in social interactions with Muslim patients].

In today's world, the plurality of values is considered to be a constitutive feature of modern societies. In these societies, transcultural patient-physician relationships are a part of daily medical practice. Culturally determined value systems can be crucial for understanding the perception of notions such as "health" and "illness", leading to fundamental differences in assessing medical interventions and therapeutic objectives.

[The clinical ethics committee (CEC) in the area of conflict between hospital certification, moral pragmatics and scientific approach].

During the last decade numerous consultative bodies for bioethical and medical ethical issues have been established. In this study we will introduce the clinical ethics committee (CEC), which can be mainly brought into action for three purposes: discussing moral problems in a hospital's everyday work, developing guidelines for the clinic, and giving further education to the hospital's staff. Starting with the denominational hospitals at the end of the 1990s, CECs have been established in the meantime at a large number of German clinics, often in an interrelation with hospital certification.

[Aspects of senile dementia in ancient Rome: literary fiction and factual reality].

Old people and their pecularities have been the object of writers since the beginning of Western literature. The aim of this study is to verify the social and juridical significance of senile dementia in ancient Rome. Among the few relevant sources the 10th satire of Juvenal attracts attention.

[The origin, diffusion and development of healing doctrines in medical history--exemplified by homeopathy].

As a paradigmatic case study of the origin, spread, and development of medical systems, this paper investigates the 200-years history of homeopathy from different perspectives of medical history. On the basis of new research on Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), first, a concise and critical overview on the principles, explanations, and implications of his doctrine is presented. The historical, conceptual, and social background of the founder of homeopathy is then elaborated in terms of history of medicine, science, philosophy, sociology, culture, and ideas, as well as theory of science, theory of communication, and sociology of science.

[Teaching at the University of Jena as a contribution to the German debate about Lavoisier's chemistry].

The German debate about Lavoisier's chemistry started late, was confined to the theory of combustion, mainly focused on two experiments and was closed relatively soon. The perspective from academic teaching allows a better understanding of these features. There was a far-reaching correspondence between the usual practice of academic chemistry teachers and the epistemic criteria taken to be relevant during the debate about Lavoisier's chemistry.

Evolution and development: past, present, and future.

The paper tries to set right certain ideas about the history of evolutionary developmental biology. The main point is, that we had to enface the dominance of a comparative approach towards evolutionary developmental biology before 1900, which even later on was effective in Russia, for example, till the 1930s. The problem of the experimentalist approach set against this tradition was and is that there is no concept of gestalt that may allow to integrate the former comparative views and the modern mechanistic interpretations.

[The brave new world of prevention? On the prerequisites and scope of public health genetics].

Recent developments in molecular genetics and genomics have not only provided new insights into the biological foundation of life but have also brought about significant changes in the ways health and disease are understood. Nowadays, understanding how the human genome interacts with health-related behaviour and diverse environments is recognised to be the key for biomedical innovation. Even though advances in genetics and genomics have unveiled a whole new complexity of the genetic underpinnings of health and disease and clearly show the need for further investigation, studies of health-related genetic traits already give rise to novel approaches to prevention.

[Possibilities and limits of retrospective diagnoses. Pathobiografical notes on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's diseases (1756-1791)].

On December 5th, 1791, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart died from an acute febrile disease which had been accompanied by painful tumefactions around his hands and feet. The official diagnosis 'hitziges Frieselfieber' (severe military fever) cannot be decoded or translated into modern medical terms. Hypotheses which assert either a wilful or an erroneous poisoning with mercuric chloride have not been corroborated.

[Medical self-help in the writings of Ulrich Bräker (1735-1798): the cultural and social resources of the "poor man of Tockenburg" analyzed with Pierre Bourdieu's capital concept].

Living as a poor pietist spinner, weaver and cotton trader in the rural Toggenburg area in Eastern Switzerland in late eighteenth-century, self-help was central to Ulrich Bräker's (1735-1798) reaction towards illness. Two initial examples exemplify this central position of self-help: Bräker's cure from migraine in the year of 1784 and a quantitative analysis of his diaries. Based on the journals (which he maintained between 1768 and 1798) and Bräker's autobiography this article scrutinizes the resources of self-help amongst the rural and poor population in the late eighteenth century.

[Antiparacelism and Trinity: medical antitrinitarism from Thomas Erastus (1524-1583) to Ernst Soner (1572-1605)].

There were close relationships between Renaissance medicine and antitrinitarianism in 16th and 17th century. Forming an important part of the radical reformation antitrinitarianism won many disciples in the Holy Roman Empire and proved its attraction for physicians. This paper centers on two public scandals in Heidelberg and Altdorf involving the reknown university professors and physicians Thomas Erastus and Ernst Soner.