Residence Germany Institutions University of Leipzig | Nationality German Institution Leipzig University | |
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Born 23 November 1954 (age 62)
Aachen ( 1954-11-23 ) Known for developmental psychopathology and psychotherapy in childhood Books Manual for Short-term Psychoanalytic Child Therapy (PaCT), Reaktive Bindungsstrungen People also search for Dieter Bürgin, Tanja Göttken, Phyllis Tyson, Waltraut von Klitzing-Naujoks Fields Child and adolescent psychiatry, Psychoanalysis | ||
Kai von Klitzing (born 23 November 1954 in Aachen) is a German child and adolescent psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and professor at the University Hospital Leipzig. He is known for his works in the field of mental health in early childhood, developmental psychopathology and psychotherapy in childhood.
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Biography
Kai von Klitzing is a descendant of an old German noble family, which was first mentioned in 1265. He studied medicine from 1974 to 1980 at the University of Freiburg where he received his Medical Doctor degree. He became senior physician at the Clinic of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry Basel in 1988. He became privatdozent (habilitation) in 1997 at the University of Basel with a work titled "Early child development and family relationship". In Basel he also underwent his adult and child psychoanalytic training to gain membership of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). From 1997 to 1998, he spent a year as a visiting research scholar at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver with Rober N. Emde. In 2000 he was appointed associate professor at the University of Basel gaining a full professorship for child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy at the University of Leipzig, where he became director of the Hospital of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics in Childhood and Adolescence in 2006. Since 2012, he is the medical and scientific head of the Department of Women and Child Medicine.
Scientific Contribution
In the beginning of his career Kai von Klitzing had his scientific focus on infant development. Together with Dieter Bürgin he conducted several longitudinal studies from pregnancy to school age exploring the associations between parental representations, triadic (father – mother – infant) interaction, and child developmental outcome. During his time in Colorado he studied – together with Robert N. Emde and Kim Kelsay – kindergarten children’s narratives and their associations with behavioral problems. After returning to Basel he focused on psychiatric disorders in preschool and early school age in several studies with Sonja Perren. He continued this research at the University of Leipzig where he established diagnostic methods for preschool children and studied stress regulation in children with anxiety disorders and depression disorders. Together with Tanja Göttken he developed and evaluated a short-term Psychoanalytic Child Therapy (PaCT) manual for children suffering from anxiety and depression disorders. Besides his clinical and research activities Kai von Klitzing is a reviewer of several scientific journals and science funding organisations (German Research Foundation, Swiss National Foundation). He is editor of the German language Journal KINDERANALYSE (Child Analysis) and associate editor of the Infant Mental Health Journal. As of 2016 he is serving as the president of the World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH).
Honors and awards
2007 August Homburger Award of the University of Würzburg for his research in developmental psychopathology in early childhood.