Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
www.pharmpress.com/fact
Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2003; 8: 7
Klaus Linde was born in Munich, Germany, in 1960 and is married, with two children (born 1984 and 1988). After completing 13 (mostly boring) years at school he worked in the civil service (1980–81) with severely handicapped children in Bielefeld. After some travelling, he studied German literature and ethnology at the University of Freiburg (1981–82). Subsequently, after a phase of orientation with travelling and work, he decided to study medicine in Italy. This entailed the study of Italian language at Florence in 1983 and first year of medicine at University of Bologna (1983–84). He became ‘more serious and responsible’ after the birth of a son, with continuation of study of medicine in Munich (1984–89). His MD thesis was on dose-dependent reversal effects. Since 1991 he has worked for the Centre of Complementary Medicine Research (formerly Münchener Modell) in Munich; from 1999 to 2001 he did additional part-time work and completed a PhD thesis in epidemiology at the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics at the Humboldt-University, Berlin.
Q Who was your most influential teacher?
KL: My grandfather (a Protestant parson) who taught me, among many other things, to doubt and have confidence at the same time.
Q What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
KL: When all the data are entered and I run the first analysis.
Q If you had not entered your current profession, what would you have liked to do?
KL: To write novels or to teach literature.
Q What makes a good researcher?
KL: Creative uncertainty, experience, patience and reliability.
Q Which complementary therapies do you use yourself?
KL: If possible, I prefer no treatment to any treatment. However, sometimes I use Hamamelis ointment (figure out for what) or echinacea, and I have been treated with homoeopathy, acupuncture, and Tuina in the past.
Q What stimulates your creativity?
KL: Talking and discussing with people who have different opinions.
Q What is the most treasured possession in your life?
KL: My family.
Q What is your favourite dream?
KL: Writing a good novel.
Q What makes you happy?
KL: A nice dinner with good wine, being in the mountains when the weather is fine, cycling downhill, if a tune I play on the piano runs really well, when I play football and I hit the ball perfectly….
Q What do you deplore in yourself?
KL: That I have great difficulties in conflicts between being too soft and getting angry.
Q What do you deplore in others?
KL: Depends on who is the other.
Q What was the most embarrassing moment in your life?
KL: Too private…
Q How do you keep fit?
KL: Soccer, cycling, walking.
Q What is your favourite book/film?
KL: Short Cuts, Black Cat, White Cat; Once Upon a Time in the West; Able con ella, Leaving Las Vegas, Casablanca… Der Idiot, Michael Kohlhaas, Du meine Pappel im roten Kopftuch (Aitmatov)…
Q If you were invited on the Jerry Springer show – why would this be?
KL: Never heard of the Jerry Springer show.
