Author: Walter Dahlhaus Publisher: Anthrosocial (2026), available only in German
Nearly 100 years after Rudolf Steiner gave twelve lectures on curative education to a small, select group of General Anthroposophical Society Executive Board members, doctors, and educators in the old carpentry workshop in Dornach, the next generation is now setting out to take responsibility for his ideas and their worldwide implementation. With their inclusive and interdisciplinary approach, «anthroposophical curative education» and, later, social therapy, which arose from this impulse, have become an international leader, especially in regards to practice. Nevertheless, it is always important and good to reflect on our sources and to take to heart the much-quoted phrase made by Bernard of Chartres in 1120, «We are dwarfs on the shoulders of giants.» Thus, for its engagement with the foundations laid in 1924—subsequently transformed through to the present—and for approaching them from multiple perspectives with a contemporary viewpoint, the series published by the Swiss association Anthrosocial merits our close attention. The seventh volume in the series has now been published, in which curative education teacher, psychiatrist, and psychotherapist Walter Dahlhaus addresses questions of health and illness in people who require assistance due to cognitive, psychological, and social limitations. After a general introduction to the WHO definition of health, the author outlines the approach of anthroposophic medicine, its understanding of the human being, and its therapeutic methods, which function as a complement to conventional medicine. He emphasizes the fundamental importance of rhythm in all forms (e.g., sleeping/waking, activity/rest, temporal rhythms, etc.) for the strengthening of vitality and as a fundamental element for activating our inherent self-healing powers. In anthroposophic medicine, health means, above all, balance—namely, between the three soul forces of thinking, feeling, and willing—as well as a harmonious interaction between the four levels (members) of the human being: the physical body, the life and the soul forces, with the ‹I› as the spiritual dimension. Curative education and social therapy work with a salutogenic approach and, in addition to conventional medical procedures, use artistic and movement therapy methods, external applications, and specific remedies from the spectrum of anthroposophic pharmacology. The WHO understands health as complete corporeal, soul, and social well-being (1946) and health promotion as a process of self-empowerment (1986). According to Dahlhaus, after people in need of assistance—particularly for psychological disorders—were long denied access, healthcare is now recognized, in all respects, as a human right. Therefore, one task of successful inclusion in healthcare is to ensure barrier-free access to diagnostics, therapy, and prevention for people with cognitive impairments. This requires the break down of structural barriers, a knowledge of specific needs, and adapted communication to improve the understanding of complaints (e.g., assisted communication with gestures, images, electronic aids, etc.). A prerequisite for professional support is knowledge of disease predispositions and sensitive handling of emotional developmental age (SED-S/SEED). Many institutions already use these standards in the context of disability assistance, but there is still room for improvement in this regard in the medical field. In the brochure, the author takes a brief look at the different aspects of psychological, neurological, internal, bodily, and syndrome-specific disorders, as well as the special characteristics of people on the autism spectrum. He describes characteristic symptoms and risks in order to explain the respective disposition and provides recommendations for possible treatments. Competent diagnosis, an appropriate attitude toward the people being cared for, maintaining rhythm and building relationships, as well as everyday, salutogenic support are crucial in this regard. We owe a debt of gratitude to Walter Dahlhaus for this well-structured, clear, and, above all, easy-to-understand brochure for medical laypeople. It offers practitioners in the field of curative education and social therapy an initial orientation and invites further exploration in order to support people in need of assistance in understanding, actively shaping, and maintaining their health.
Translation: Joshua Kelberman
