Form, Life, and Consciousness

“Medical etudes” is the title Armin Husemann would have preferred for the studies published here, and rightly so. In this book, Husemann–an anthroposophic physician, Goethean researcher, teacher, and head of the Eugen Kolisko Academy at the Filder Clinic in Filderstadt (near Stuttgart)–develops a medical perspective on the human being that infuses the often highly abstract scientific foundations of medicine with artistic sensibility. The result is a new, supple form of medical thinking that might be called “medical science through art,” to use an expression previously coined by Husemann himself….Armin Husemann’s art-imbued study of the human being and the natural world is constantly growing, differentiating, metamorphosing, and developing, as this book also testifies. His “human science” has assumed something of an organismic form itself; it is not a schematic system that can ever be “finalized.” In Dr. Husemann, we experience an exemplary enlivening and humanizing of science and teaching. In my view, science and education need to be adapted to conform to the human and natural worlds on a deeper level. The need for evolution in this direction is all too obvious in undesirable developments of the present day. It is my hope that this new book will inspire many readers, especially the younger ones, to participate actively in this urgently needed shift toward living thinking in medicine.–From the foreword by Prof. Peter Heusser, MD “Anthroposophy begs to be lived out in confidence and beauty. Where it does, it convinces, and becomes a force of healing and new creation. Form, Life, and Consciousness is such an example. It expresses the harvest of a lifetime, illustration by illustration, and discovery after discovery. An imminently readable book, it will fascinate anyone interested in the riddles of the human mind, body, and spirit. It is a must-read for anthroposophic doctors, and a copy belongs in every Steiner School library for science classes. Indeed. The world would be a very different place if it were a resource tool in general education.” –C. T. Roszell–from his review of the book in “Being Human,” winter-spring 2020 (quarterly journal of the Anthroposophical Society in America)

Dr. Armin J. Husemann, MD, born in 1950, worked as a school doctor from 1988 to 1993. He has been a general practitioner in private practice since 1987 in Stuttgart, Germany. Since 1993, he has been the director and a lecturer at the Eugen Kolisko Academy (formerly The Anthroposophic Medical Seminar) in Filderstadt. Dr. Husemann’s books translated into English include The Harmony of the Human Body: Musical Principles in Human Physiology (Floris Books, 2003); Human Hearing and the Reality of Music (SteinerBooks, 2015); and Form, Life & Consciousness: An Introduction to Anthroposophic Medicine and Study of the Human Being (SteinerBooks, 2019).Professor Dr. Peter Heusser was born in 1950 in Brienz, Switzerland. He received specialized training in family medicine, including internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics. He also trained in anthroposophic medicine at two Swiss hospitals. For 15 years, Dr. Heusser worked in the outpatient department of the Lukas Clinic, an oncology hospital providing conventional and anthroposophic medicine. Also for 15 years, he was affiliated with the Medical Section at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, networking for research in anthroposophic medicine. For 14 years he was lecturer and Head of the Department of Anthroposophic Medicine at the Institute of Complementary Medicine (KIKOM), University of Bern, Switzerland, involved in preclinical and clinical research. Since 2009, he has been Professor and Chair for Theory of Medicine, Integrative and Anthroposophic Medicine, as well as Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Witten, Herdecke, Germany. Professor Heusser has published more than 200 papers, articles, and book chapters.