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Paul Eugen Bleuler and the Birth of Schizophrenia (1908)

2008; American Psychiatric Association; Volume: 165; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08050714

1535-7228

Paolo Fusar‐Poli, Pierluigi Politi,

Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Images in PsychiatryFull AccessPaul Eugen Bleuler and the Birth of Schizophrenia (1908)Paolo Fusar-Poli M.D.Pierluigi Politi M.D., Ph.D.Paolo Fusar-Poli M.D.Pierluigi Politi M.D., Ph.D.Published Online:1 Nov 2008https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08050714AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail The term "schizophrenia" was coined 100 years ago, on April 24, 1908, when Paul Eugen Bleuler gave a lecture at a meeting of the German Psychiatric Association in Berlin (1): "For the sake of further discussion I wish to emphasize that in Kraepelin's dementia praecox it is neither a question of an essential dementia nor of a necessary precociousness. For this reason, and because from the expression dementia praecox one cannot form further adjectives nor substantives, I am taking the liberty of employing the word schizophrenia for revising the Kraepelinian concept. In my opinion the breaking up or splitting of psychic functioning is an excellent symptom of the whole group" (2). Kraepelin's use of "dementia" derived from the Latin word mens and the prefix de-, expressing privation; it was a noun that implied a static condition. While Kraepelin selected descriptions of the symptoms and studied their time course mostly from patients' records, Bleuler collected material directly from his passionate clinical work. By accommodating himself to the spatial and temporal environment of his patients, he realized that the condition was not a single disease (he referred to a "whole group" of schizophrenias [3]), was not invariably incurable, and did not always progress to full dementia, nor did it always and only occur in young people. The main symptoms of this disease were the loosening of associations, disturbances of affectivity, ambivalence, and autism ("the four A's") (4). However, the splitting of different psychological functions, resulting in a loss of unity of the personality, was the most important sign of disease in Bleuler's conception (4). Thus, he challenged the accepted wisdom of the time and advanced his purportedly less static and stigmatizing concept by juxtaposing the Greek roots schizen (σχι´ζειν, "to split") and phrēn , phren- (φρη´ν, φρεν-, originally denoting "diaphragm" but later changing, by metonymy, to "soul, spirit, mind"). After completing his studies in medicine (1881) and mental and nervous diseases (1883), Bleuler visited Paris, London, and Munich. He became director of a small psychiatric clinic situated in an abandoned monastery on the Rhine (Rheinau, 1886–1898), then he was appointed professor and director of the Burghölzli Asylum in Zurich (1898–1927). Among his pupils there were such outstanding personalities as Carl Gustav Jung, Karl Abraham, Eugene Minkowski, Ludwig Biswanger, and Hermann Rorschach. He published the work "Dementia praecox oder Gruppe der Schizophrenien" in 1911 (3) and the book Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie in 1916 (5). He died in 1939 in Zollikon, Switzerland, where he had been born in 1857. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Fusar-Poli, Department of Applied and Psychobehavioral Health Sciences, University of Pavia, via Bassi 21, 27100 Pavia, Italy; [email protected] (e-mail). Photograph reproduced by permission of Civic Library of Cremona, Italy. Image accepted for publication June 2008 (doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.08050714).References1. Bleuler E: Die Prognose der Dementia praecox (Schizophreniegruppe). Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie und psychischgerichtliche Medizin 1908; 65:436–464Google Scholar2. Kuhn R (translated by Cahn CH): Eugen Bleuler's concepts of psychopathology. Hist Psychiatry 2004; 15:361–366Google Scholar3. Bleuler E: Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias (1911). Translated by Zinkin J. New York, International Universities Press, 1950Google Scholar4. Stotz-Ingenlath G: Epistemological aspects of Eugen Bleuler's conception of schizophrenia in 1911. Med Health Care Philos 2000; 3:153–159Google Scholar5. Bleuler E: Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie. 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Sweeney, Ph.D.1 December 2015 | American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 173, No. 3Medical Humanities, Vol. 42, No. 1The Role of Empathy and Adult Attachment in Predicting Stigma toward Severe and Persistent Mental Illness and other Psychosocial or Health ConditionsJournal of Mental Health Counseling, Vol. 38, No. 1Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 45, No. 10Current Sleep Medicine Reports, Vol. 1, No. 2European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Vol. 94Schizophrenia Bulletin, Vol. 41, No. 2Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome: Ready for DSM-5.1?Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 10, No. 1La patologia del rapporto di realtà nel disturbo schizofrenico: rilettura critica delle concettualizzazioni di Kraepelin e BleulerRIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA, No. 2Neurología, Vol. 27, No. 7Neurología (English Edition), Vol. 27, No. 7Paul Eugen Bleuler and the origin of the term schizophrenia (SCHIZOPRENIEGRUPPE)Indian Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 54, No. 1Use of psychiatric inpatient capacities and diagnostic practice in Tashkent/Uzbekistan as compared to Berlin/Germany10 October 2010 | Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Vol. 46, No. 12Schizophrenia Bulletin, Vol. 37, No. 6An Atypical, Chronic Psychotic Disorder in a 55-Year-Old ManHarvard Review of Psychiatry, Vol. 17, No. 5 Volume 165Issue 11 November, 2008Pages 1407-1407THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY November 2008 Volume 165 Number 11 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 November 2008 Published in print 1 November 2008