Cross-cultural, transnational or interdisciplinary? Eric Wittkower's psychosomatic medicine and transcultural psychiatry in historical context.

This article traces the career, scientific achievements, and emigration of the Berlin-born physician, psychoanalyst, and psychosomatic researcher Eric Wittkower. Trained in Berlin and practicing internal medicine, he became persecuted by the Nazi regime and, after fleeing Germany via Switzerland, continued his professional career in the United Kingdom, where he turned to psychosomatic medicine and worked in the service of the British Army during World War II. After two decades of service in the UK, Wittkower joined McGill University in Canada. His increasingly interdisciplinary work contributed to the establishment of the new research field of transcultural psychiatry. Finally the paper provides a detailed history of the beginning of the section of transcultural psychiatry at the Allan Memorial Institute.

[Eric D. Wittkower--a forgotten pioneer of psychosomatic medicine]. / Eric D. Wittkower--Ein vergessener Pionier der Psychosomatischen Medizin.

Eric D. Wittkower--a forgotten pioneer of psychosomatic medicine. Wittkower (1899-1983) was not only a pioneer of psychosomatics, but also a psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, co-founder of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and major exponent of transcultural psychiatry. This article tries to retrace his early years and studies in Berlin by means of autobiographical notes and archival material in the Berlin university. Then it focuses on his research and specialisation as a doctor and lecturer of psychosomatic medicine until his forced emigration in 1933.