Friedrich Groos

Who was Friedrich Groos?

Friedrich Groos was a German physician and philosopher born in Karlsruhe.

Initially a student of law in Tübingen and Stuttgart, his interest later turned to medicine. From 1792 studied medicine in Freiburg im Breisgau and Pavia, and following graduation became Stadtphysikus in Karlsruhe. From 1805 to 1813 he worked as a doctor in several locations, and in 1814 became a senior physician at the asylum and Siechenanstalt in Pforzheim. With the 1826 relocation of the Pforzheim mental asylum to Heidelberg, he moved to the latter city, where he also gave lectures in psychiatry at the university.

Groos was the author of works in several subjects, such as philosophy, forensic medicine, psychiatry, et al. During a period of severe illness, he became deeply interested in Stoic philosophy. As a psychiatrist he believed that mental illness was due to spiritual as well as mental causes.