Thomas Elbert

Professor of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Konstanz, Germany

Thomas Elbert studied Psychology and Physics at the Universities of Munich and Tübingen (PhD, 1978). His publications (h-index>45) focus on the self-regulation of the brain, and on cortical organization, neuroplasticity and their relation to behaviour and psychopathology. Based on progress in understanding the mechanisms of neuroplasticity, new treatment approaches for aphasia and focal dystonia have been developed together with Dr. Rockstroh in the Konstanz laboratory.

Moreover, Elbert has demonstrated how adverse conditions and stress affects brain, mind and behaviour via neuroplastic reorganisation. Together with his colleagues, Dres. Neuner and Schauer, Elbert has developed Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), a culturally universal short-term intervention for the reduction of traumatic stress symptoms in survivors of organized violence, torture, war, rape, and childhood abuse. This treatment has been field-tested in war-torn areas. Elbert has worked in crisis regions in East-Africa, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

Working with researchers from resource-poor countries such as Uganda or Rwanda, Elbert has come to realize that the world’s information-poor have become poorer. He says that taxpayer funds in countries across the world are being used to create further inequality in access to information as authors publish in journals which cannot be afforded by many libraries and only afforded by some libraries through the cancellation of other useful titles.