prof. dr. Frank Koerselman

About Frank Koerselman

Frank Koerselman led the psychiatry department at the Sint Lucas Andreas Hospital in Amsterdam and was a professor of psychiatry at Utrecht University from 1997 to 2012. Outside his field, he gained recognition for advocating the view that life should be seen as a gift. He documented his vision of humanity and human behavior in the book “Who We Are. Between Reason and Desire.” Recently, he published “The Loss of Fatherhood.” In this essay, he outlines the causes and consequences of the decline of paternal qualities such as strength and self-control from an evolutionary perspective.

Frank has played an active role in the societal debate on various controversial topics, such as criticism of the pharmaceutical industry or the permissibility of assisted suicide and brain research on prisoners. He has also raised awareness about the risks of epidemics of “fashionable diseases.”

As a speaker, he focuses, based on his professional expertise, on four themes:

• From Personality Type to Personality Disorder
  When does a normal character variant become disruptive or even destructive? How can personality disorders be recognized and managed?
• From Challenge to Stress
  When does a stimulating challenge turn into debilitating stress? What signs indicate that someone is ‘decompensating’? What is “burnout” and how can it be prevented?
• From Sick to Healthy Teams
  What are the characteristics of a healthy team and the symptoms of a sick team? What makes an individual a member of a team? To what extent may or must individuals within a team differ from each other? What individual basic needs must a team be able to meet? How can an individual make or break a team?
• Societal Developments Through the Lens of the Psychiatrist
  What needs and fears play a role in left or right political choices, in political correctness or xenophobia? What lies behind the struggle between religion and enlightenment, between women and men, between young and old? How does a societal phenomenon acquire psychological significance?