Jan Theobald Held

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Jan Theobald Held
Jan-theobald-held.jpeg
Born(1770-12-11)December 11, 1770
DiedJune 20, 1851(1851-06-20) (aged 80)
Prague
Other namesJohann Theobald Held; Jan František Held; Jan Orebský
Occupation(s)physician, composer

Jan Theobald Held (December 11, 1770 – June 20, 1851), also known as Johann Theobald Held was a Bohemian physician, educator, musician, and composer. He was noted for his theories on psychosis, and the links between psychology and environmental conditions. He served as the dean of Charles University, Prague, and was depicted in the novel F. L. Věk by Alois Jirásek.

Contents

Early life and education

Jan was born in Třebechovice pod Orebem on December 11, 1770. [1] His early education took place in the town of his birth, where he received training in singing and in instrumental performance. [1] His father died in 1780, and he was sponsored by townspeople to join a choir in Prague, and also to attend secondary school, where he earned a scholarship that allowed him to complete his education. [1] In the choir he had been a boy soprano, but at age 19 his voice no longer allowed this, so he turned to violin and viola performance. [1] His teachers encouraged him to study medical science, [1] and he received his M.D. degree in Prague in 1797. [2] Before his father died, he had instructed Jan to pursue his fortune in a foreign country, so Held intended to follow his older brother to Poland. However, he was discouraged from doing so by the Partition of Poland. [1]

Medical career

He began practicing medicine at the Brothers of Charity hospital in 1799, [2] at the invitation of his friend Daniel O'Hehir. [1] After O'Hehir died in 1799 aged 27, [1] Held was chosen as his successor. [3] In 1813 he became head of the mental asylum there, working to reform patient treatment resulting in more humane care and conditions, [2] and spending much of his own salary on improving the lives of individual patients and maintaining the hospital. [1] He became head physician in 1822. [2] The next year he became the chief examiner for medical exams in Prague. [1] He served at Brothers of Charity until 1824. [2]

Held concluded that various forms of psychosis were of materialistic origin, and that thinking itself was a chemical process. He was an early proponent of the theory that mental health is affected by environmental conditions. For instance, in 1811 he demonstrated the correlation between state bankruptcy and the resulting decline in societal conditions, and an increase in psychological issues. He disproved a popular theory that mental disorders were increased by the appearance of a comet. [4]

Later career

He was elected dean of Charles University, Prague, on five occasions. [2] He became an imperial councillor in 1841. [2] In 1847 the physicians of Prague recognized his 50 years of service as a physician. [1] He died in Prague on June 20, 1851. [1]

Writings

Due to the time he devoted to patient care and the administration of the hospital, Held published fewer works than most academics of his educational position. [1] His publications include: [1]

Musical contributions

In addition to the violin, he was an accomplished player of the guitar. [1] He published a set of folk songs under the pseudonym Jan Orebský. [1]

Legacy

Held's reputation among Czech people was improved by a romanticized depiction in the novel F. L. Věk by Alois Jirásek. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alois Negrelli</span> Tyrolean civil engineer and railroad pioneer

Nikolaus Alois Maria Vinzenz Negrelli, Ritter von Moldelbe was a Tyrolean civil engineer and railroad pioneer mostly active in parts of the Austrian Empire, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Christian Reil</span> German physician (1759–1813)

Johann Christian Reil was a German physician, physiologist, anatomist, and psychiatrist. He coined the term psychiatry – Psychiatrie in German – in 1808.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl von Rokitansky</span> Austrian pathologist and philosopher (1804–1878)

Baron Carl von Rokitansky was an Austrian physician, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician, founder of the Viennese School of Medicine of the 19th century. He was the founder of science-based diagnostics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergei Korsakov</span> Russian neuropsychiatrist (1854–1900)

Sergei Sergeyevich Korsakov was a neuropsychiatrist from the Russian Empire, known for his studies on alcoholic psychosis. His name is lent to the eponymous Korsakov's syndrome and Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alois Jirásek</span> Czech writer, author, and playwright

Alois Jirásek was a Czech writer, author of historical novels and plays. Jirásek was a high school history teacher in Litomyšl and later in Prague until his retirement in 1909. He wrote a series of historical novels imbued with faith in his nation and in progress toward freedom and justice. He was close to many important Czech personalities like Mikoláš Aleš, Josef Václav Sládek, Karel Václav Rais or Zdeněk Nejedlý. He attended an art club in Union Cafe with them. He worked as an editor in Zvon magazine and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1918, 1919, 1921 and 1930.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelm Griesinger</span> German neurologist and psychiatrist

Wilhelm Griesinger was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Stuttgart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">František Vladislav Hek</span> Czech writer

František Vladislav Hek was a Czech writer, composer, and patriot active in the early phases of the Czech National Revival. He was a major inspiration behind the fictionalized novel F. L. Věk (1906) by Alois Jirásek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Unger</span> Austrian botanist and paleonthologist

Franz Joseph Andreas Nicolaus Unger was an Austrian botanist, paleontologist and plant physiologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">August Breisky</span>

Professor August Breisky was an Austrian gynecologist and obstetrician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hörbiger</span> Austrian actor (1894–1981)

Paul Hörbiger was an Austrian theatre and film actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Sutermeister</span> Swiss Socialist and sociopolitical writer

Rudolf Sutermeister was a Swiss medical doctor for the poor. He was also a businessman, a manufacturer, an early socialist and a socio-political writer. He is considered one of the first native Swiss German socialists, together with Gustav Siegfried, Johann Jakob Treichler, and Karl Bürkli; however, unlike Siegfried, he is also considered a utopian.

Hans Tietze was an Austrian art historian and member of the Vienna School of Art History.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church of Sts. Simon and Jude (Prague)</span>

The Church of Sts. Simon and Jude, situated next to the Brutalist Hotel InterContinental on U Milosrdných Street in the Old Town of Prague, dates back to 1354, when a hospital was founded on the site. The building was adjoined by a chapel that was sanctified by bishop Arnošt of Pardubice, a close friend of Emperor Charles IV.

Josef Johann Steinmann was an Austrian pharmacist and chemist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gottlob Friedrich Steinkopf</span>

Gottlob Friedrich Steinkopf was a German landscape painter in the Classical style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopold Alois Hoffmann</span>

Leopold Alois Hoffmann was an Austrian writer and dramatist. He was based for most of his career in Vienna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Eisenberg (writer)</span> Austrian writer and encyclopedist (1858–1910)

Ludwig Julius Eisenberg was an Austrian writer and encyclopedist. He wrote a lexicon of stage artists, among other publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Tersztyánszky von Nádas</span> Austrian officer

Karl Tersztyánszky von Nádas, officially Károly Tersztyánszky, also alternatively written Tersztyánszky de Nádas was an Austro-Hungarian general who served in World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelm Wiesberg</span>

Wilhelm Wiesberg, real name Wilhelm Bergamenter, was an Austrian writer and folksinger.

Richard Batka was an Austrian musicologist, music critic and librettist. Educated at German Charles-Ferdinand University in his native city of Prague, he began his career as a lecturing academic at that institution in 1900; leaving that post in 1906 to teach on the faculty of the Prague Conservatory. In 1908 he moved to Vienna where he taught courses in the history of opera at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna from 1909 to 1914.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 von Wurzbach, Constantin (1862). Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich. Vol. 8. Vienna: Kaiserlich-königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei. pp. 243–246.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Wallace, Edwin R.; Gach, John, eds. (2010). History of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology: With an Epilogue on Psychiatry and the Mind-Body Relation. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 297. ISBN   9780387347080.
  3. " Held Johann Theobald ". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 2, Austrian Academy of Sciences , Vienna 1959, p. 255.
  4. Kiev, Ari (1968). Psychiatry in the Communist World. Science House. p. 123. LCCN   67-27405.
  5. "Jan Theobald Held". Historical Abstracts: Modern History Abstracts, 1775–1914. 20. American Bibliographical Center: 124. 1974.