[Albert Schweitzer's MD thesis on Criticism of the medical pathographies on Jesus]

The prominent philosopher, theologian, physician, musicologist and organ soloist Albert Schweitzer (14. 1. 1875-4. 9. 1965) submitted his MD thesis Kritik der von medizinischer Seite veröffentlichten Pathographien uber Jesus (Criticism of the medical pathographies on Jesus) in 1913. Very soon he published this work under the title Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu. Darstellung und Kritik (The psychiatric evaluation of Jesus. Description and criticism) in order to reach a broader audience. Schweitzer's explicit motive for selecting this topic was to influence the theological debate by means of a M. D. thesis on psychiatric pathographies on Jesus. He was confronted with a lot of reproaches. These reproaches contended that his theological opinions had been supporting tendencies to describe Jesus as a mentally ill person or a religious fanatic. In addition, some authors of pathographies on Jesus (De Loosten, Binet-Sanglé, Hirsch, Rasmussen) characterized Jesus as mentally ill, suffering from paranoia. Schweitzer intended to reject the reproaches considering himself and the postulates of the authors of the pathographies. Schweitzer combined in a transdisciplinary way theological, psychiatric and psychopathological arguments. He did this in a very convincing way. Although Schweitzer did not deal with a central or explicit psychiatric question, he implicitly postulated transdisciplinary approaches for proper retrospective pathographies on historic persons. At the age of thirty, Schweitzer decided to finish his academic career and to begin studies in medicine as a preparation for work as a physician in Africa. This decision provoked much lack of understanding in his personal environment. Therefore it may be possible that a very personal motive contributed to the selection of the topic of the MD thesis. Among psychiatric authorities, Albert Schweitzer's interest in the criticisms of psychiatric pathographies and his transdisciplinary approach to this topic encountered rather criticism from a positivistic point of view than understanding. As a reaction to this, Schweitzer postulated some fundamental positions regarding the cultural or social responsibility of science and regarding the interdisciplinary cooperation within the universitas litterarum. These positions precede the way Albert Schweitzer is reconsidered as author in cultural studies and ethicist. The fact that this happened immediately before the beginning of the WWI may show his farsightedness.