Johann Weyer

(1515 - 1588)

Johann Weyer, born in the Netherlands, was the first physician to promote a psychogenic explanation for witchcraft; for this and other work, he is sometimes called the father of psychiatry. Though widely read, Weyer was paid little heed. One scholar has written that he was as ineffective as “a sane man speaking to the inmates of a vast lunatic asylum, and with similar results.”