Eugen Bleuler
Paul Eugen Bleuler (April 30, 1857 – July 15, 1939)[1] was a Swiss psychiatrist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness and for coining the term "schizophrenia."
Biography
Bleuler was born in Zollikon, a small town near Zürich in Switzerland, to Johann Rudolf Bleuler, a wealthy farmer, and Pauline Bleuler-Bleuler. He studied medicine in Zürich and following his graduation in 1881 he worked as a medial assistant to Gottlieb Burckhardt at the Waldau Psychiatric Clinic in Bern.[2] Leaving this post in 1884 he spent one year on medical study trips to Jean-Martin Charcot in Paris, to Bernhard von Gudden in Munich and to London.[2] Thereafter he returned to Zürich to take a post as an intern at the Burghölzli, a university hospital.
In 1886 Bleuler became the director of a psychiatric clinic at Rheinau, a hospital located in an old monastery on an island in the Rhine. It was noted at the time for being backward, and Bleuler set about improving conditions for the patients resident there.
Bleuler returned to the Burghölzli in 1898 where he was appointed director.
Following his interest in hypnotism, especially in its "introspective" variant,[3] Bleuler became interested in Sigmund Freud's work, favorably reviewing Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud's Studies on Hysteria. Like Freud, Bleuler believed that complex mental processes could be unconscious. He encouraged his staff at the Burghölzli to study unconscious and psychotic mental phenomena. Influenced by Bleuler, Carl Jung and Franz Riklin used word association tests to integrate Freud's theory of repression with empirical psychological findings. As a series of letters demonstrates (published in English in 2003), Bleuler performed from 1905 a self-analysis with Sigmund Freud [4].
Bleuler is also recognized today for having a neurological condition called synesthesia, in which information from the sensory systems crosses over with the result that an individual experiences one sensation as another – tasting colours, hearing numbers or seeing music, for example.
References
Further reading
- Tölle R (January 2008). "Eugen Bleuler (1857–1939) und die deutsche Psychiatrie [Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939) and German psychiatry]" (in German). Der Nervenarzt 79 (1): 90–6, 98. doi:10.1007/s00115-007-2379-9. PMID 18058081.
- Mayer A (2001). "Introspective hypnotism and Freud's self-analysis: procedures of self-observation in clinical practice". Revue d'Histoire des Sciences Humaines 5 (2): 171–96. doi:10.3917/rhsh.005.0171.
- Falzeder E (June 2007). "The story of an ambivalent relationship: Sigmund Freud and Eugen Bleuler". The Journal of Analytical Psychology 52 (3): 343–68. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5922.2007.00666.x. PMID 17537145.
- Bernet B (2006). "Associative disorder. On the relationship between the interpretation of disorder and society in the early writings of Eugen Bleuler [Associative disorder. On the relationship between the interpretation of disorder and society in the early writings of Eugen Bleuler]" (in German). Medizin, Gesellschaft, Und Geschichte 26: 169–93. PMID 17144374.
- Möller A, Hell D (December 2003). "Das Gesellschaftsbild von Eugen Bleuler - Anschauungen jenseits der psychiatrischen Klinik [The social understanding of Eugen Bleuler - his viewpoint outside of the psychiatric clinic]" (in German). Fortschritte Der Neurologie-Psychiatrie 71 (12): 661–6. doi:10.1055/s-2003-45344. PMID 14661160.
- Möller A, Scharfetter C, Hell D (December 2002). "Development and termination of the working relationship of C. G. Jung and Eugen Bleuler 1900-1909". History of Psychiatry 13 (52 Pt 4): 445–53. doi:10.1177/0957154X0201305206. PMID 12645573.
- Möller A, Hell D (2002). "Eugen Bleuler and forensic psychiatry". International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 25 (4): 351–60. doi:10.1016/S0160-2527(02)00127-9. PMID 12613049.
- Möller A, Scharfetter C, Hell D (January 2003). "Das "psychopathologische Laboratorium" am "Burghölzli" [The "Psychopathologic laboratory" at Burghölzli. Development and termination of the working relationship of C.G. Jung and Eugen Bleuler]" (in German). Der Nervenarzt 74 (1): 85–90. doi:10.1007/s00115-002-1282-7. PMID 12596032.
- Möller A, Hell D (September 2000). "Prinzipien einer naturwissenschaftlich begründeten Ethik im Werk Eugen Bleulers [Fundamentals of scientifically based ethics in the works of Eugen Bleuler]" (in German). Der Nervenarzt 71 (9): 751–7. doi:10.1007/s001150050660. PMID 11042871.
- Möller A, Hell D (July 1999). "Scientific psychology in the works of Eugen Bleuler [Scientific psychology in the works of Eugen Bleuler]" (in German). Psychiatrische Praxis 26 (4): 157–62. PMID 10457965.
- Scharfetter C (April 1999). "Recht- und Andersgläubige [Orthodoxy against heretics. Correspondence of Gaupp and Kretschmer to Eugen Bleuler]" (in German). Fortschritte Der Neurologie-Psychiatrie 67 (4): 143–6. doi:10.1055/s-2007-993991. PMID 10327309.
- Möller A, Hell D (November 1997). "Zur Entwicklung kriminalpsychologischer Grundanschauungen im Werk Eugen Bleulers [The development of criminal psychology in the work of Eugen Bleuler]" (in German). Fortschritte Der Neurologie-Psychiatrie 65 (11): 504–8. doi:10.1055/s-2007-996356. PMID 9480292.
- Kruse G (September 1996). "Autistic-undisciplined thinking in medicine and overcoming it by Eugen Bleuler [Autistic-undisciplined thinking in medicine and overcoming it by Eugen Bleuler]" (in German). Psychiatrische Praxis 23 (5): 255–6. PMID 8992526.
- Wilhelm HR (1996). "Eugen Bleuler and Carl Gustav Jung's habilitation [Eugen Bleuler and Carl Gustav Jung's habilitation]" (in German). Sudhoffs Archiv 80 (1): 99–108. PMID 8928214.
- De Ridder H, Corveleyn J (1992). "Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939) and psychoanalysis [Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939) and psychoanalysis]" (in German). Zeitschrift Für Klinische Psychologie, Psychopathologie Und Psychotherapie 40 (3): 246–62. PMID 1519383.
- Bleuler M, Bleuler R (November 1986). "Dementia praecox oder die Gruppe der Schizophrenien: Eugen Bleuler". The British Journal of Psychiatry 149 (5): 661–2. doi:10.1192/bjp.149.5.661. PMID 3545358.
- Bleuler M (March 1984). "Eugen Bleuler and schizophrenia". The British Journal of Psychiatry 144: 327–8. PMID 6367878.
- Menuck M (March 1979). "What did Eugen Bleuler really say?". Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 24 (2): 161–6. PMID 371780.
- Gärtner JK (February 1965). "Significance of Eugen Bleuler in the development of general medical practice [Significance of Eugen Bleuler in the development of general medical practice]" (in German). Der Landarzt 41 (5): 187–91. PMID 5320265.
- Klaesi, Jakob (December 1957). "Zum hundertsten Geburtstag Eugen Bleulers [On the hundredth birthday of Eugen Bleuler]". Psychiatria et Neurologia 134 (6): 353–61. doi:10.1159/000138783. PMID 13505951.
Persondata |
Name |
Bleuler, Eugen |
Alternative names |
|
Short description |
|
Date of birth |
April 30, 1857 |
Place of birth |
Zollikon, Switzerland |
Date of death |
July 15, 1939 |
Place of death |
Zollikon, Switzerland |