Heinrich Philipp August Damerow 1798 - 1866

Heinrich Philipp August Damerow 1798 - 1866 was a German psychiatrist who was born in Stettin, Province of Pomerania, Prussia.

Though Damerow contested the ideas that Samuel Hahnemann borrowed from Paracelsus, and he did not agree that Paracelsus taught homeopathy, Damerow did agree that the homeopathic law was true and useful, and that Samuel Hahnemann’s reform did constitute the basis of a far better system of medicine thatn the previous, allopathic system.

In 1822 Damerow earned his doctorate in Berlin and for a period of time afterwards was a private lecturer and professor. In 1836 he became director of a mental institution near Halle.

Damerow was one of the more influential psychiatrists during the mid 19th century. He was an advocate of an holistic approach to treating mental illness. He believed that a physician must view the patient as a union of body, mind and soul.

He was also an advocate of the teachings of philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and believed in the Prussian ideal that the state is the manifestation of divine reason. Damerow was editor of the psychiatric journal Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie.