From April 30 to May 2, 2026, Witten/Herdecke University hosted a conference on the Temporal Orders of Life in Medicine, Education, and Biography.
The event was planned and moderated by Georg Soldner, former co-director of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum, together with psychiatrist and philosopher Thomas Fuchs of Heidelberg University and neurologist Friedrich Edelhäuser (Witten/Herdecke University and Herdecke Community Hospital). It was implemented by the Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine (IBAM, Integriertes Begleitstudium Anthroposophische Medizin). In the university’s large, packed lecture hall approximately 200 people participated in the conference, ranging in age from first-year students to lifelong participants past the age of 90. The presence of speakers from the fields of philosophy, medical ethics, anthroposophic medicine, education, theology, and spiritual care throughout the conference fostered an intensive exchange in working groups, discussions following the lectures, and conversations during breaks and shared meals.
In Memory of Peter Matthiessen (1944–2019)
The conference was dedicated to Peter Matthiessen. The seventh anniversary of his death fell on April 30, 2019, the opening day of the conference. As a leading personality, Matthiessen had played a key role in the founding of Witten/Herdecke University. One of his final publications was the volume Für eine zeitliche Kultivierung der Patient-Arzt-Begegnung [Toward a time-conscious approach to the patient-physician encounter], published by the Dialogforum Pluralismus in der Medizin [Dialogue Forum on Pluralism in Medicine]. He advocated for an expansion of the concept of time within the framework of spiritual anthropology and biography-oriented medicine, presenting his trinitarian conception of time, which drew on anthroposophy. Matthiessen stood for a spiritually open, unbiased academic dialogue that encompasses diverse perspectives, with a shared focus on central questions of the present, particularly in medicine, anthropology, and epistemology. The current conference was also intended to follow this approach.
Linear and Cyclical Time: Everyday Time, Biographical Time, World Time
The initial focus was on the question of a growing contradiction between the modern, scientific, linear conception of tim—which is accompanied by the economically and technologically driven acceleration of modern life—and the cyclical, rhythmic, temporal orders that characterize living organisms. The introductory lecture by Heidelberg philosopher and psychiatrist Thomas Fuchs explored how this polarity can be bridged and integrated in moments of a lived present, or “present time.” Fuchs also indicated ways of escaping the temporal crisis of the present, whether through a hedonistic focus on living in the moment, populist nostalgia for a lost past, or in gloomy, apocalyptic scenarios of an impending final battle between good and evil. The scope of inquiry was broadened to include the experience of the present “world time” and the increasing difficulties of reconciling one’s own everyday life, the biographical arc of one’s life, and the historically experienced processes of transformation—a central theme in Hartmut Rosa’s, a sociologist at the University of Jena, lecture on the final day of the congress.
Intergenerational Relations and the “Time of the Other”
In a pre-conference workshop, Göttingen-based philosopher Anne Clausius addressed the topic of “generativity.” She explored questions related to generational succession, the relationship between younger and older generations, whether a smooth transition is even possible here, and what conditions the older generation leaves behind for the younger generation’s future—a highly topical issue that also encompasses the question of declining birth rates. The Swiss philosopher Emil Angehrn noted that, since Augustine, the question of the human experience of time has been posed largely from the perspective of the subject, of the human ‘I’, and then expanded this perspective to include the “time of the other.” What does it mean to remember the past together, extending to the question of mutual forgiveness? What characterizes the present if we proceed from the literal meaning of the word and include the presence of the “You”? How does the future meet us through the other?
The Counterstream of Time
Georg Soldner addressed these questions the following morning in his reflection on the “Counterstream of Time.” It is human encounter—often the question posed by the other—that, as a “counterstream,” interrupts our past-driven attitude of “just keep going” which shades our conceptions and ways of acting. This counterstream can create moments of openness that allow for reorientation. Soldner proceeded on the basis of Rudolf Steiner’s suggestion to study the dialectic of opposing dynamics originating from the past and the future within our own soul experience. Only this polarity creates the possibility for removing the causally conceived compulsion of the past from present experience, thereby enabling development and, ultimately, freedom. To illustrate this, Soldner drew on examples ranging from biological evolution and physiology based on the research of Wolfgang Schad (1935–2022) to history and modern methods of organizational development (Otto Scharmer’s “Theory U”). The counterstream of time is vividly portrayed in the Gospels, for example, in the scene of the adulteress described by John or in Saul’s experience of Christ on the road to Damascus, depicted in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Virtue of Patience, and the Cultivation of Temporal Rhythms as the Foundation of Interpersonal Connection
Freiburg-based medical ethicist Giovanni Maio gave a contribution on patience, the virtue of intentional not-yet-acting, respect for the unique time belonging to everything, and a posture of forbearance that avoids a “final word” in interpersonal relationships and can foster a nonviolent closeness to others in their otherness. The lectures were wonderfully introduced with music by the young cellist Lucia Martin, which fostered a culture of listening at the conference, as did the inspiring Jugend musiziert [Youth Makes Music], the award-winning high school student trio on the second evening.
Nurse Natalie Hurst (University of Tübingen) described, on the one hand, the time pressure experienced in nursing and, in contrast, the sensitive approach to birth as a rhythmic process and the subsequent care necessary for the establishment of life rhythms by mother, father, and child. It became clear how closely the feeling of security and secure attachment is linked to the cultivation of the “time for the other” that is necessary here. Christian Tewes from Alanus Hochschule in Mannheim used a Norwegian research project to demonstrate how the establishment of good rapport with students by prospective teachers is experienced as an essential prerequisite for successful teaching.
The Dissociation of Time and the Experience of Transcendent Temporality
The central theme, dating back to Augustine, of how human beings experience the past and the future, and, embedded therein, the present, was explored by Marion Debus, a hematologist-oncologist and co-director of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum. She examined how this experience changes in people with cancer. Drawing on clinical studies, she demonstrated that the inner connection between past, present, and future can become dissociated in such cases. Hartmut Rosa, a sociologist at the University of Jena, identified a similar tendency toward dissociation as a diagnosis of modern Western societies. Cancer is characterized by an unchecked, linear-exponential proliferation of tumor cells at the expense of the organism as a whole—a dynamic that corresponds to the ecologically disastrous, capital-driven growth of the modern economy. Debus contrasted this tendency with the experience of “transcendent temporality,” in which people in extreme situations, such as during resuscitation or malaria-induced fever spikes, experience a temporally integrated overview of their entire life, sometimes including the future (“flash forward”). She was able to demonstrate how the disintegration of the experience of time is promoted by the breakdown of the body’s thermal rhythms and, conversely, how the therapeutic strengthening of these rhythms of warmth can support a reintegration of the experience of time.
Stretched and Re-rhythmized Time: How the Experience of Time Can Promote Healing
Rosa Michaelis, a neurologist and psychotherapist who had recently completed her habilitation (at Bochum University Clinic and Witten/Herdecke University), demonstrated how epilepsy patients can tap into their own resources through guided therapeutic reflection to reduce the severity and frequency of their seizures. In this process, coping with stress and resynchronizing with healthy circadian rhythms plays an essential role. Neurologist and head of the early rehabilitation department at Herdecke Community Hospital, Friedrich Edelhäuser, then spoke about the experience of time during moments of shock and in people with brain damage. He gave striking examples of the stretching of subjective time perception during accidents and of extreme forms of “transcendent” (Debus) experiences of time during mountain accidents. Bodily-temporal and presumably extracorporeal-atemporal experiences converge here. He used the example of a patient with an extensive infarct in the left hemisphere of the brain to show how the two hemispheres of the human brain are also associated with polar forms of the experience of time. The patient’s previously tightly structured experience of time, linked to a fixed, spatially distinct bodily perception separate from all others, transformed into a boundless, flowing, present-oriented experience of time and body. In accord with current research findings, Edelhäuser demonstrated how our normal experience of time is closely intertwined with our own, mostly unconscious bodily perception, particularly of heart and breathing rhythms, and how it is integrally synthesized by a time-transcending and spiritual-essential self. He concluded by noting how healing processes are correspondingly influenced by individual experiences of time.
Acceleration and Alienation: In Search of Lost Time
Hartmut Rosa gave his reflections on everyday time, lifetime, and world time. Guided by the question of when we perceive our lives as successful, he linked the answer to a successful alignment of these three temporal levels within our own biography. Using the novel A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler as an example, he illustrated how both extremes can be experienced within a single life: a feeling-at-one with daily work, one’s own life, and the historical moment; and a feeling of falling out of all that. Modernity, Rosa diagnosed, is increasingly unable to fulfill its central promise that hard work will lead to a world without scarcity in which children will always have it better than their parents. Rosa contrasted the biblical phrase, “Everything has its time,” with Günther Anders’s statement, “Everything that lasts, lasts too long.” He thereby characterized the tendency toward acceleration, which is systemically necessary for capitalism, and its abysmal consequences.
Spirituality and Medicine
The final contribution was given by Munich-based philosopher, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and professor of spiritual care, Eckhard Frick. He addressed the relationship between spirituality and medicine in a world that is, on the one hand, increasingly dominated by rational-causal thinking and, on the other, becoming increasingly multicultural. According to Frick, this leads to the fragmentation of a unified, religiously grounded conception of the purpose of human existence into religious, mystical, non-theistic-spiritual, non-religious-rational, or humanistic perspectives. He also explained the different lines of development in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. He used the polarity between the causally minded Sigmund Freud and the synchronic relationships and finality orientation of C. G. Jung. Within the framework of support in the sense of spiritual care, an experience that is initially focused on explanation can increasingly transform into inner evidence and intuition, into an “It is so.”
In Search of Fulfilling Time
In keeping with Peter Matthiessen’s pursuit of unbiased dialogue, the conference dedicated to him succeeded—not least thanks to the very active participants—in collectively fostering inquiry and genuine interest in others, as well as creating a lively atmosphere for discussion. As a result, we repeatedly experienced moments of fulfilled presence—a more present time.
The current global crisis and period of upheaval served as the backdrop—a situation that does not allow us to “just keep going.” On the other hand, the question of viable visions for the future remains open for many people. It was this horizon that lent great weight to the contributions and the common search they expressed. The event concluded with a discussion in which participants responded very positively to the conference. The special atmosphere created by the student and staff of IBAM and the university was also repeatedly mentioned—it contributed essentially to the warmth and heartfelt atmosphere of the conference in the sense of a “shared space of resonance.”
More Universität Witten/Herdecke and Universität Witten/Herdecke Integrated Curriculum for Anthroposophic Medicine (IBAM).
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Image Hartmut Rosa at the congress
