Jürgen Leo Müller (born 5 May 1963 in Würzburg) is a German medical specialist for neurology and psychiatry. He is a professor for forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy at the University of Göttingen as well as chief physician for forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy at the Asklepios Clinic in Göttingen. His particular scientific interest lies in the empirical research of forensically relevant disorders with a particular focus on personality disorders, psychotherapy as well as violent and sex offenders. In addition to that he places special emphasis on the usability of empirical techniques to responding legal questions.Jürgen Leo Müller und Norbert Nedopil (2014) Neurowissenschaften in Foro: Hilfreiche Technik oder neue Quelle von Missverständnissen Zeitschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform
Biography Müller studied human medicine at the University of Würzburg from 1984 to 1990. After his specialist training in neurology and psychiatry he was clinically responsible and scientifically active in forensic psychiatry in Homburg, Saarland, Bern and Regensburg. Müller finished his habilitation at the University of Regensburg with a thesis on the contribution of functional magnetic resonance imaging to the connectivity model of neuro psychiatric diseases in 2003. Since 2006 he has been working as a professor of forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy at the Ludwig Meyer Institute of the University of Göttingen.Jürgen Müller am Ludwig-Meyer-Institut At the same time Müller is senior consultant of the Asklepios Clinic for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Göttingen.Jürgen Müller als Chefarzt an der Asklepios für Forensische Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie
Jürgen Müller is a forensic psychiatric expert in a range of criminal and civil law. Amongst others he was charged as a forensic psychiatric expert with the case of the double-murderer of Bodenfelde (Germany)Gutachter haben keine Zweifel an Geständnis Göttinger Tageblatt Eichsfelder Tageblatt 09.06.2011 and with that of the amok driver of Graz (Austria).Grazer Amokfahrer: Anstalt statt Gefängnis Die Presse.com (1.6. 2016)
Scientific contribution
Müller completed his doctoral thesis in psychiatric history about the Munich psychiatrist and writer Oskar Panizza with summa cum laude.Müller, J.L. Der „Pazjent“ als Psychiater – Oskar Panizzas Weg vom Irrenarzt zum Insassen. Mit einem Vorwort von Christian Müller Edition „Das Narrenschiff“ [Hrsg.v. Asmus Finzen]. Psychiatrie-Verlag 1999Müller, J.L. Oskar Panizza – Versuch einer immanenten Interpretation. [Medizinische Dissertation in Würzburg 1990] Tectum-Verlag Marburg 1999 [=Edition Wissenschaft, Unterreihe „Humanmedizin“, Band 264]Müller, J.L. Imperjalja. Manuskript germ. qu. 1838 der Handschriftenabteilung der Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz zu Berlin, in Textübertragung herausgegeben und mit Anmerkungen versehen, Guido Pressler Verlag, Hürtgenwald 1993 Müller's research has since been focusing on the empirical research of forensically relevant disorders.Müller, J.L., „Neurobiologe forensisch relevanter Störungen“. Hrsg. v. Jürgen L. Müller. Kohlhammer Verlag: 2009 During his time in Regensburg, he implemented numerous research projects on forensically relevant disorders of personality (“Psychopathy”). As head of the interdisciplinary working group "Emotion processing and emotion regulation"Müller, J. L., Gänßbauer, S., Sommer, M., Weber, T., Döhnel, K., Hajak, G. (2007) Volumenminderung und reduzierte emotionale Aktivierbarkeit des rechten superioren temporalen Gyrus bei krimineller „Psychopathy“. Untersuchungen mit Voxel-basierter Morphometrie und funktioneller Magnetresonanztomographie. Psychiatrische Praxis (S1): 165-167Müller, J. L. (2006) Neurobiologie der Aggressionsgenese. I. Neurochemische Befunde. Nervenheilkunde 25 11: 953-961Müller, J. L., Sommer, M., Taschler, H., Lange, K., Wagner, V., Hajak, G. (2003) Abnormalities in Emotion Processing within Cortical and Subcortical Regions in Criminal Psychopaths. Evidence from an fMRI Study using Pictures with Emotional Contents. Biological Psychiatry 54: 152-162 of impulse controlMüller, J. L., Putzhammer, A., Hajak, G. (2005) fMRT – Studien zur funktionellen Neuroanatomie motorischer Regelkreise. Einfluss von Krankheit und Antipsychotika auf die motorische Hirnaktivierbarkeit schizophrener Patienten. Psychiatrische Praxis 35 47-52Müller, J. L., Sommer, M., Weber, T., Hajak, G. (2004) Neurobiologie der Gewalt: Empirische und experimentelle Befunde zu reaktiven Formen der Gewalt. Psychiatrische Praxis 31: 50-51 he carried out research projects on impulsive control and emotion regulationMüller, J. L., Sommer, M., Taschler, H., Lange, K., Wagner, V., Hajak, G. (2003) Abnormalities in Emotion Processing within Cortical and Subcortical Regions in Criminal Psychopaths. Evidence from an fMRI Study using Pictures with Emotional Contents. Biological Psychiatry as well as on reactive and proactive forms of aggression.Müller, J. L. (2006) Neurobiologie der Aggressionsgenese. II. Bildgebende Befunde. Nervenheilkunde 25 11: 962-968. He conducted studies on paraphilia and pedophilia in Göttingen. He used objective methods such as eye trackingJordan K, Fromberger P, Laubinger H, Dechent P, Müller JL: Changed processing of visual sexual stimuli under GnRH-therapy - a single case study in pedophilia using eye tracking and fMRI. BMC Psychiatry (2014), 14:142. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-14-142Fromberger, P., Jordan, K., & Muller, J. L. (2014). Use of virtual reality in forensic psychiatry: A new paradigm? [Anwendung virtueller Realitäten in der forensischen Psychiatrie: Ein neues Paradigma?] Der Nervenarzt, 85(3), 298-303.doi: 10.1007/s00115-013-3904-7Fromberger, P., Jordan, K., Steinkrauss, H., von Herder, J., Stolpmann, G., Kroner-Herwig, B., & Muller, J. L. (2013). Eye movements in pedophiles: Automatic and controlled attentional processes while viewing prepubescent stimuli. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(2), 587-599. doi: 10.1037/a0030659 in combination with fMRI to evaluate the potential benefits of using empirical investigator-independent parameters for diagnosis, prognosis and therapy evaluation.Jürgen Leo Müller und Norbert Nedopil (2014) Neurowissenschaften in Foro: Hilfreiche Technik oder neue Quelle von Missverständnissen Zeitschrift für Kriminologie und Strafrechtsreform (2015 in press)Müller, J. L. (2008) Forensische Psychiatrie im Zeitalter der „Neuroscience“: Stand und Perspektive neurobiologischer Forschung bei der Beantwortung forensisch-psychiatrischer Fragestellungen. Nervenarzt 1-8
In 2006, Müller was invited to the Lower Saxony State Court Bückeburg and in 2011 to the Federal Constitutional Court, as an expert regarding negotiations of the privatisation of forensic psychiatric facilities. In 2012, he created an expert report for the Federal Constitutional Court on the issue of "mental disorder" as part of the Therapy Accommodation Act.Müller, J.L. (2012) Die Regelungen der Sicherungsverwahrung im Lichte des Bundesverfassungsgerichtsurteils vom 04.05.2011 in ihren Auswirkungen auf Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie. In NK Neue Kriminalpolitik – Forum für Praxis, Recht und Kriminalwissenschaften. Nomosverlag 02: 54-61Müller, J.L., Saimeh, N., Habermeyer, E., Nedopil, N., Falkai, P. (Hrsg). Die Neuregelung der Sicherungsverwahrung. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft Berlin Verlag (2012) This acted on the arguments given in the case of K.J. L. Müller, Vom BayUBG zum BayStrUBG: Rückfallprävention zwischen staatlichem Sicherheitsanspruch, Selbstverständnis psychiatrischer Kliniken und individuellen Freiheitsrechten. In: Über die Zerbrechlichkeit der Willensbestimmung. Hrsg. v. J. L. Müller und G. Hajak Springer Verlag: Reihe MedizinRecht (2005): 21-35J. L. Müller, Vom BayUBG zum BayStrUBG: Rückfallprävention zwischen staatlichem Sicherheitsanspruch, Selbstverständnis psychiatrischer Kliniken und individuellen Freiheitsrechten. In: Über die Zerbrechlichkeit der Willensbestimmung. Hrsg. v. J. L. Müller und G. Hajak. Regensburg (Selbstverlag) 2004: 55-77 from 2003 to the question on whether society could be protected from highly dangerous, but in legal sense sane, that is legally responsible people with the help of the Bavarian accommodation law.Müller, J. L., Klein, H. E,, Cording, C. (2002) Missbrauch der Psychiatrie? Konflikte zwischen staatlichem Sicherheitsanspruch und dem Selbstverständnis psychiatrischer Kliniken. Psychiatrische Praxis 8 Bd 28: 446 – 420.
Müller researched on the problem of false positives (regarding individuals who were detained preemptively even though they might not have gone on to commit a crime) in danger forecasts: The study by Müller et al. on "Recidivism after Final Rejection of a Subsequent Order of Preventive Detention" is continued after including further cases and excerpts from the Federal Central Criminal Register. Catamnesis comprises now a period of 6.5 years and a greater number of cases.Müller, J.L., Haase, K.-A., Stolpmann, G. (2013) Recidivism and characteristics of highly dangerous offenders being released from retrospectively imposed preventive detetntion. Behav. Sci. Law DOI: 10.1002/bsl.2069Müller, J.L., Stolpmann, G., Fromberger, P., Haase, K.-A., Jordan, K. (2012, in press) Legalbewährung nach nicht angeordneter nachträglicher Sicherungsverwahrung – Implikationen für die Neuregelung der Sicherungsverwahrung. Nervenarzt
Currently, Müller is involved in the construction and the use of virtual realityFromberger, P., Meyer, P., Kempf, C., Jordan, K., Müller, J.L. Virtual Viewing Time: the relationship between presence and sexual interest. PLOS One (in revision)Fromberger, P., Jordan, K., & Muller, J. L. (2014). Use of virtual reality in forensic psychiatry: A new paradigm? [Anwendung virtueller Realitäten in der forensischen Psychiatrie: Ein neues Paradigma?] Der Nervenarzt, 85(3), 298-303.doi: 10.1007/s00115-013-3904-7 in the diagnosis, treatment and risk assessment in forensic psychiatric patients as well as in dangerous offenders in cooperation with the central facility for preventive detention in Lower Saxony Rosdorf. The projects Virprotect (development of a virtual environment for the treatment of child abuse perpetrators), ViVT (development of a virtual environment for the objective detection of sexual interest in prepubescent children) and VIRAC (development of virtual environments for the risk assessment of child abuse perpetrators) aimed at the exploration and use of sex offenders. In addition, an appropriate use in the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of violent offenders is being prepared.
As head of an interdisciplinary working group, which was launched by the scientific society DGPPN (The German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics) interdisciplinary working group, Müller works to achieve a consensus for nationwide minimum standards to be established for psychiatric hospital treatment. These aim at establishing professionally anchored lower limits for financial and human resources and call for science-based recommendations on process, structure and outcome of treatments. The need to improve the quality of treatment in psychiatric hospitals has been shown on several levels: by the decisions on preventive detention of the European Court of Human Rights and the German Constitutional Court through the resonance of the public in the event MollathSüddeutsche.de: Fall Mollath - Justizskandal in Bayern as well as the hitherto rising numbers of patients in forensic psychiatry.Statistisches Bundesamt: Im psychiatrischen Krankenhaus und in der Entziehungsanstalt aufgrund strafrichterlicher Anordnung Untergebrachte (Maßregelvollzug)