Matthias Heinrich Göring (b. 1879-d. 1945) was a German psychiatrist, born in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

. He died in prison in Poznan

Poznan

Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

 because he was an active Nazi.

He start his studies with a doctorate in law, and a doctorate in medicine at Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

 in 1907. Specializing in psychiatry and neurology he did a training analysis with Adlerian

Adlerian

Pertaining to the theory and practice of Alfred Adler , whose school of psychoanalysis is called Individual Psychology . Central to the Adlerian approach is to see the personality as a whole and not as the mere net result of component forces. Thus the term individual psychology...

 Leonhard Seif in Münich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

.

Like fellow Adlerians Seif and Fritz Künkel

Fritz Künkel

Fritz Künkel was known both as a German psychiatrist and an American psychologist. He might best be understood as a social scientist who sought to integrate psychology , sociology and religion into a unified theory of human being...

, Göring placed an emphasis upon "community feeling," to which he added German patriotism and Christian pietism. He was therefore critical of psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

 for its alleged materialism and pansexualism.

Göring's significance in the history of psychoanalysis stems from his career after 1933. His position as leader of organized psychotherapy

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...

 in Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 stemmed from the fact that he was an elder cousin of Nazi boss Hermann Göring

Hermann Göring

Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...

. In part to protect the fledgling institution of psychotherapy against Nazi medical activists and university psychiatrists, Göring (who joined the Nazi party in 1933) preached against "Jewish" psychoanalysis and supervised the exclusion of Jewish psychoanalysts from his society and institute.

In 1934 Göring assumed leadership of the German General Medical Society for Psychotherapy and from 1936 to 1945 was director of the German Institute for Psychological Research and Psychotherapy in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. In 1938 he presided over the destruction of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute and the dissolution of the German Psychoanalytic Society, although also protecting and employing psychotherapists, Felix Boehm, and Carl Müller-Braunschweig, Harald Schultz-Hencke

Harald Schultz-Hencke

Harald Schultz-Hencke was a German psychiatrist and psychotherapist. After an initial introduction to psychoanalysis, with Sandor Rado as psychoanalyst, he was excluded from the German Society of Psychoanalysis because of, among other things, his divergent views on sexuality.In 1933, like several...

, and Werner Kemper. He was friend to Karen Horney

Karen Horney

Karen Horney born Danielsen was a German-American psychoanalyst. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views, particularly his theory of sexuality, as well as the instinct orientation of psychoanalysis and its genetic psychology...

.