Rainer Matthias Holm-Hadulla is Professor for Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Psychotherapy at Heidelberg University, Germany. He is a Training Analyst (IPA) and teaches at universities in Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile and at the Pop-Academy, Mannheim. Professor Holm-Hadulla is the author of over 100 scientific papers, as well as six books on creativity, counselling, and psychotherapy, including The Art of Counselling and Psychotherapy (Karnac 2004) and The Recovered Voice: Tales of Practical Psychotherapy (Karnac 2017). Previous versions of his Psycho-Biography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe have been published in German, Spanish, Italian, and Persian.

Introduction: Goethe¿s path to creativity Part I Goethe¿s life and work 1 Childhood and youth: Frankfurt, 1749¿1765 2 Crises during his student days: Leipzig, 1765¿1768 3 Return to the family home: Frankfurt, 1768¿1770 4 Flight from love: Strasbourg, 1770¿1771 5 Refuge at home again: Frankfurt, 1771¿1772 6 Passion and renunciation: Wetzlar, 1772 7 Period of genius: Frankfurt, 1772¿1775 8 Early dramas: Reflection of Goethe¿s emotional conflicts 9 Period of maturity: Weimar, 1775¿1786 10 Rebirth in Italy, 1786¿1788 11 His great love and public influence: Weimar, 1788¿1805 12 Political changes and new passions: 1806¿1823 13 Love in old age and late creativity: 1821¿1832 Part II Creativity, art of living, and illness 14 Life as creative self-realization: The Wilhelm Meister project 15 Goethe¿s creativity from the perspective of modern creativity research 16 Goethe¿s creative art of living and self-treatment strategies 17 Goethe¿s creative bipolarity and "healthy illness" Part III Goethe¿s legacy 18 Goethe¿s late poem Legacy 19 Goethe¿s final letter 20 Goethe¿s "inner fairytale": The psychological messages of Faust II