Viktor Freiherr von Weizsäcker (21 April 1886 in Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 – 9 January 1957 in Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

) was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 physician and physiologist. He was the brother of Ernst von Weizsäcker

Ernst von Weizsäcker

Ernst Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German diplomat and politician. He served as State Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1938 to 1943, and as German Ambassador to the Holy See from 1943 to 1945...

, and uncle to Richard von Weizsäcker

Richard von Weizsäcker

Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker , known as Richard von Weizsäcker, is a German politician . He served as Governing Mayor of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984, and as President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994...

 and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker

Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the research team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under Werner Heisenberg's leadership...

. (For his family tree, see Weizsäcker

Weizsäcker

The Weizsäcker family was and is influential over the span of several generations, hailing from the former Kingdom of Württemberg. Their members include a Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Württemberg, a President of Germany, a leading diplomat, a prominent environmental scientist, and the...

).

He studied at Tübingen

Tübingen

Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...

, Freiburg

Freiburg

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...

, 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...

, and Heidelberg, where he earned his medical degree in 1910. In 1920 he became head of the neurological

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

 department at Ludolf von Krehl

Ludolf von Krehl

Albrecht Ludolf von Krehl was a German internist and physiologist who was a native of Leipzig. He was the son of Orientalist Christoph Krehl...

's clinic in Heidelberg. In 1941 he succeeded Otfrid Foerster

Otfrid Foerster

Otfrid Foerster was a German neurologist and neurosurgeon, who made innovative contributions to neurology and neurosurgery, such as rhizotomy for the treatment of spasticity, anterolateral cordotomy for pain, the hyperventilation test for epilepsy, Foerster's syndrome, the first electrocorticogram...

 as professor of neurology in Breslau, and in 1945 returned to Heidelberg as a professor of clinical medicine

Clinical Medicine

Clinical Medicine is a peer-reviewed medical journal published bimonthly by the Royal College of Physicians. It was established in 1966 as the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London. It was doubly named between 1998 and 2000, and since 2001 it has appeared as Clinical Medicine. Its...

.

Weizsäcker is known for his pioneer work in psychosomatic medicine, and for his theories regarding medical anthropology

Medical anthropology

Medical anthropology is an interdisciplinary field which studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives...

. He is remembered for his concept of Gestaltkreis, an elaboration of Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...

, in which he explains that biological events are not fixed responses, but are dependent upon previous experience and are constantly being repatterned through experience. Via Gestalt, Weizsäcker attempted to represent the unit of perception and movement theoretically.

In the late 1920s Weizsäcker was co-author of Die Kreatur with philosopher Martin Buber

Martin Buber

Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....

 (1878-1965) and theologian Joseph Wittig

Joseph Wittig

Joseph Wittig was a German theologian and writer who was born in Neusorge, a village in the district of Neurode, Silesia....

(1879-1949). In this magazine, Weizsäcker advances his ideas concerning medical anthropology. In 1956 he published Pathosophie, where he tries to create a philosophical understanding of man through his drives, conflicts, and illnesses.