In contrast to newer collections of psychotic art, the Prinzhorn Collection does not consist of works created through external therapeutic and psychotherapeutic stimulation, but rather entirely spontaneous artworks. After studying art history and earning his doctorate, Hans Prinzhorn studied medicine and dedicated himself to psychiatry. After the war in 1918, he became an assistant at the Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic. The director there, Karl Wilmanns, asked him to expand and scientifically process an existing collection of artistic products created by the mentally ill that Wilmanns had initiated. The art objects that Prinzhorn collected and processed in Heidelberg primarily come from untrained artists who were driven to creative activity only after the onset of a mental illness—most of whom suffered from schizophrenia.