What is life like with schizoaffective psychosis? An elderly gentleman from Hamburg knows that very well, Peter Gross – even if it took the doctors a long time to grasp his suffering from this diagnosis in the first place. Over the years, Gross experienced that a second self was nested in his personality, sometimes it was Stalin, sometimes Jesus, for a while Ludwig van Beethoven. The doctor of philosophy did not always fall into delusion, however, who “swims in high spirits on the manic wave in the intervening times”, as it is said in the essay by the journalist Andreas Wenderoth, who had Gross history told – and for the Swiss magazine ” Reports “wrote down.
His essay “Dr. Gross, the superman. If nothing helps, only the lithium tablet helps” gives a fascinating insight into the spiritual world of a person who is endowed with high intellectual abilities and is also a good narrator, but of a psychotic illness is drawn. The depot syringe with the active ingredient fluphenazine, which is administered every two weeks, is used, which is used in veterinary medicine to induce anesthesia and is intended to prevent relapses into schizophrenic psychoses in humans.
Shaped the SZ for years: Herbert Riehl-Heyse, who died in 2003.
(Photo: Regina Schmeken / Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo)
For this thoughtful piece, the Süddeutsche Verlag has awarded Wenderoth the Herbert Riehl Heyse Prize 2021. The prize is dedicated to the life’s work of the former chief reporter, essayist and side-light author of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, who helped shape the reporting and tone of the newspaper for over 30 years and who died of cancer in 2003. The award, endowed with 10,000 euros, is intended to keep Riehl-Heyse’s journalistic legacy alive in the media, and will be presented for the 9th time this year.
Andreas Wenderoth was born in 1965 and after studying political science and geography and doing an internship at the Berliner Zeitung, he worked as a freelance reporter, including for Brigitte, the SZ magazine, Geo, Mare and star. In recent years he has dealt increasingly with the topic of mental health, about 2016 described his father’s dementia in the book “Half a Hero – My Father and Forgetting”.
Wenderoth will receive the Herbert Riehl Heyse Prize on September 28 in Munich, while the publicist Tamara Dietl will give a speech at the award ceremony. A recording of the event will be available on September 29th from 7pm on sz.de/riehl-heyse-preis2021 released.