info[at]spurensuchen.org
www.spurensuchen.org.
Florian Besch studied Anthropology, Indology and Tibetology at the University Göttingen. 2001 he finished his studies with the thesis ‘Medizinischer Pluralismus in Indien. Zum Verhältnis von internationalen, staatlichen und lokalen Organisationen in der primären Gesundheitspflege’. Afterwards he worked in the research unit of the French NGO Nomad RSI and accompanied a project on the integration of Tibetan medicine in primary health care in Lingshed (Ladakh). In 2006 he received his PhD at the University of Heidelberg for his work on Tibetan physicians in the northwestern Indian Himalayas, Ladakh and Spiti (‘Tibetan medicine off the roads: Modernizing the work of the amchi in Spiti’). 2006 to 2008 he was assistant professor at the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg.
Since 2008 Florian Besch is a freelance Anthropologist and Trainer (HRD and personality development). He teaches as a lecturer at the Institute of Anthropology and the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg on topics of medical anthropology and field research. Since 2010 he in a research project at the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin on spiritual healers in Germany.
Research Interests
Complementary medicine and alternative healing methods in Germany; modernization of Asian medical systems; ritual and spiritual healing; Asian martial- and healing arts; international Health
Research Area(s)
Germany; Ladakh and Spiti (Indian Himalaya)
Publications
Journal Articles
2014. (together with M. Teut et al.): „Perceived outcomes of spiritual healing and explanations – a qualitative study on the perspectives of German healers and their clients”. In: BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 14 (240). http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/14/240
Monographs and Edited Volumes
2006. ‘Tibetan medicine off the roads: Modernizing the work of the amchi in Spiti’. http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/7893/.
Chapters in Edited Books
2015. (together with F. Jeserich et al.): „Radikale Körper-Empathie spiritueller Heiler und somatische Gegenübertragungen im Heilritual: Ein Beispiel für das methodologische Spiel mit psychoanalytischen Konzepten in der Religionswissenschaft“. In: Klinkhammer, Gritt and Eva Tolksdorf (eds.): Somatisierung des Religiösen: Empirische Studien zum rezenten religiösen Heilungs- und Therapiemarkt. Bremen: University of Bremen, 339-378. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-00104231-10.
2010. ‘Rituelle Heilungspraktiken als Ressource einer lokalen Identität traditioneller tibetischer Ärzte in Spiti, Nordwestindien’. In: Dilger, Hansjörg and Bernhard Hadolt (eds.): Medizin im Kontext: Krankheit und Gesundheit in einer vernetzten Welt. pp. 267-286. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang Verlag.
2008. ‘Shorinji-Ryu Karate-Do mit Morbus Menière- und Tinnitus-Betroffenen. Zur heilpädagogischen Wirksamkeit von Kampfkunst’. In: Jörg-Michael Wolters (ed.): Budopädagogik. Kampfkunst in Pädagogik, Therapie und Coaching. pp. 110-119. München: Ziel-Verlag.
2007. ‘Making a Medical Living: On the monetisation of Tibetan Medicine in Spiti’. In: Mona Schrempf (ed.): Soundings in Tibetan medicine. Anthropological and historical perspectives. Proceedings of the 10th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (PIATS), Oxford, 2003. pp. 155-170. Leiden: Brill Publishers.
Conference Presentations
2015. „Chinese Medicine and Tibetan Medicine as Medical Systems“. Workshop on 03.02.2015 at the “Public Health Anthropology Course“ at the Institute for Tropical Hygiene and Public Health, University of Heidelberg.
2013. ‘Concepts of Healing among Healers and their Clients in Germany, or: How Patients become Healers’. Presentation with Christine Holmberg on 16.02.2013 at the workshop ‘Religion and Medicine. Epistemology, Law, and Everyday Experience and Practice’ at the Institut für Ethnologie, Freie Universität Berlin.
2007. ‘Amchi medicine in Spiti: local knowledge vs. modern scholarly medicine’. Presentation on 26.10.2007 at the seminar ‘Savoir thérapeutique et matières médicinales dans le monde tibétain. Perspectives en sciences sociales’ at the Centre d’Anthropologie Sociale (LISST), Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales – Université de Toulouse le Mirail.
2007. ‘Tibetan medicine in the Indian public health system’. Presentation on 29.06.2007 at the Dieter Conrad Lecture and Conference ‘Modernity, malady and medicine: politics, health policy and implementation in India after independence’ at the Südasien-Institut, Universität Heidelberg.
2007. ‘Healing Rituals as Markers of an Identity of Spiti Amchi’. Presentation on 18.05.2007 at the workshop ‘Embodiment, Ritual, and the Sacred Landscape in Tibetan Healing’ at the University of Oxford.
2007. ‘The Anthropology of Health Care Situations and Institutions in Ladakh’. Workshop on 08.05.2007 at the seminar ‘Medical Anthropology as a Tool for Public Health’ at the Institut für Tropenhygiene und Public Health, Universität Heidelberg.
2007. ‘Chinese Medicine and Tibetan Medicine as Medical Systems’. Presentation on 02.05.2007 in the seminar ‘Medical Anthropology as a Tool for Public Health’ – at the Institut für Tropenhygiene und Public Health, Universität Heidelberg.