Matthias Göring

Matthias Heinrich Göring (b. 1879-d. 1945) was a German psychiatrist, born in Düsseldorf. He died in prison in Poznan because he was an active Nazi.

He start his studies with a doctorate in law, and a doctorate in medicine at Bonn in 1907. Specializing in psychiatry and neurology he did a training analysis with Adlerian Leonhard Seif in Münich.

Like fellow Adlerians Seif and Fritz Künkel, Göring placed an emphasis upon "community feeling," to which he added German patriotism and Christian pietism. He was therefore critical of psychoanalysis for its alleged materialism and pansexualism.

Göring's significance in the history of psychoanalysis stems from his career after 1933. His position as leader of organized psychotherapy in Nazi Germany stemmed from the fact that he was an elder cousin of Nazi boss Hermann Göring. In part to protect the fledgling institution of psychotherapy against Nazi medical activists and university psychiatrists, Göring (who joined the Nazi party in 1933) preached against "Jewish" psychoanalysis and supervised the exclusion of Jewish psychoanalysts from his society and institute.

In 1934 Göring assumed leadership of the German General Medical Society for Psychotherapy and from 1936 to 1945 was director of the German Institute for Psychological Research and Psychotherapy in Berlin. In 1938 he presided over the destruction of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute and the dissolution of the German Psychoanalytic Society, although also protecting and employing psychotherapists, Felix Boehm, and Carl Müller-Braunschweig, Harald Schultz-Hencke, and Werner Kemper. He was friend to Karen Horney.