Heinz Leymann (17 July 1932 – 26 January 1999) was a Swedish academic, famous for his studies on mobbing among humans. He held a degree in pedagogical psychology, and another one in psychiatry and worked as a psychologist. He was a professor at Umeå University.
Academic background
Born in 1932 in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, Leymann, became a Swedish citizen in the mid-1950s, and was awarded his PhD in pedagogical psychology from Stockholm University in 1978.[1] He then went on to get another research doctorate (doktor i medicinsk vetenskap, "doctor of medical science," typically translated into English as PhD) in psychiatry in 1990 from Umeå University.[2] Somewhat unusually, his doctorate in psychiatry was based on his clinical background as a psychologist; he did not go through medical training.[3]
Leymann's work on mobbing
Leymann pioneered research into mobbing in the 1980s. His initial research in the area was based on detailed case studies of a number of nurses who had committed or tried to commit suicide due to events at the workplace.[4] He developed the Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror (LIPT), a questionnaire of 45 mobbing actions.
Although he preferred the term bullying in the context of school children, some have come to regard mobbing as a form of group bullying. As professor and practicing psychologist, Leymann also noted one of the side-effects of mobbing is post-traumatic stress disorder and is frequently misdiagnosed.
Among researchers who have built on Leymann's work are:
^Leymann, Heinz, Kan arbetslivet demokratiseras?: om vikten av att se demokratiseringen som en inlärningsprocess = [Is democracy on the job possible?] : [the significance of the learning process underlying democratic participation], Pedagogiska inst., Stockholms univ., Diss. Stockholm : Univ.,Stockholm, 1978 - LIBRIS record
^Leymann, Heinz, Psychological reactions to violence in working life: bank robberies, Umeå, 1990 (Umeå University medical dissertations, 0346-6612 ; N.S., 289) - LIBRIS record
^Hecker, Thomas E. (2007). "Workplace Mobbing: A Discussion for Librarians". The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 33 (4): 439–445. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2007.03.003.
