title: Bühler revisited in times of war--Peter R. Hofstätter's The Crisis of Psychology (1941).
abstract: During World War II in 1941, the psychologist P. R. Hofstätter added an article to the debate on the crisis of psychology in a distinctly Nazi academic journal. After introducing Hofstätter and the journal, the core elements of his diagnosis and therapy recommendation beneath the National-Socialist-verbiage will be expounded. Hofstätter, a student of Karl Bühler's, ties on to his teacher's crisis well-known publication, but perceives the crisis in a broader perspective and connects it to the decline of theology and of pastoral guidance. Hofstätter's central, new aspect is the practice of psychology without which he sees it doomed. A central feature of psychological practice should be secular, non-therapeutic guidance of individuals. Various contextual facets are illuminated, Hofstätter's thwarted attempts to get a university position, the recent establishment of psychology in Germany as a discipline teaching professionals, the abolition of German military psychology, the battle for the Berlin university chair of Wolfgang Köhler.
authors.affiliation: Adolf-Würth-Zentrum für Geschichte der Psychologie, Universität Würzburg, Pleicherwall 1, D-97070 Würzburg, Germany. horst.gundlach@alumni.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gundlach
mesh_terms: D003376:Counseling / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D005858:Germany; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000266:history; D028683:National Socialism / Q000266:history*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000266:history*; D011584:Psychology / Q000266:history* / Q000379:methods; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013663:Teaching / Q000266:history; D028725:Theology / Q000266:history; D014495:Universities / Q000266:history; D047789:World War II