author
Alfred Hoche
1865–1943
A German psychiatrist and neurologist, he became one of the most controversial medical writers of the early 20th century. His name is closely tied to debates over psychiatry, ethics, and the dangerous history of eugenic thought.
1 Audiobook
Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens Ihr Maß und ihre Form; Zweite Auflage
by Karl Binding, Alfred Hoche
About the author
Born on August 1, 1865, in Wildenhain, Alfred Erich Hoche studied medicine in Berlin and Heidelberg and went on to build a career in psychiatry and neurology. He later became a professor at the University of Freiburg, where he was known both for his clinical work and for his sharp criticism of other major figures in psychiatry, including Emil Kraepelin and Sigmund Freud.
Hoche is most remembered for co-authoring the 1920 work Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens with jurist Karl Binding. In that book, he argued that some lives were "unworthy of life," a position that has made him a deeply troubling figure in the history of medicine because of its connection to later Nazi policies of killing disabled people and psychiatric patients.
He died on May 16, 1943, in Baden-Baden. Today, Hoche is studied less for lasting medical achievements than for the ethical warning his work represents: how psychiatric authority can be used to justify cruelty when human dignity is denied.