Bleuler, Eugen
Bleuler, Eugen
(oi`gən bloi` lər), 1857–1939, Swiss psychiatrist. He taught (1898–1927) at the Univ. of Zürich, serving concurrently as director of Zürich's Burghölzi Asylum. Bleuler is well-known for his introduction (1908) of the term schizophrenia, formerly known as dementia praecox, and for his studies with schizophrenic patients. He concluded that the disease was not one of dementia, a condition involving organic deterioration of the brain, but one that consisted of a disharmonious state of mind in which contradictory tendencies exist together. His work was significant in its suggestion that psychological disturbances could be at the root of psychosis, and for his unprecedented belief that such patients were not incurable. A follower of Sigmund FreudFreud, Sigmund, 1856–1939, Austrian psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis. Born in Moravia, he lived most of his life in Vienna, receiving his medical degree from the Univ. of Vienna in 1881.
His medical career began with an apprenticeship (1885–86) under J.
..... Click the link for more information. and associate of Carl JungJung, Carl Gustav
, 1875–1961, Swiss psychiatrist, founder of analytical psychology. The son of a country pastor, he studied at Basel (1895–1900) and Zürich (M.D., 1902).
..... Click the link for more information. , Bleuler was a long time member of Freud's Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. His son, Manfred Bleuler, conducted important follow-up studies in the Burghölzi hospital made famous by his father, and summarized these in The Schizophrenic Disorders (1978).
Bibliography
See E. Bleuler Dementia Praecox (1911, tr. 1950).
Bleuler, Eugen
Born Apr. 30, 1857, in Zollikon, near Zürich; died there on July 15, 1939. Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist; professor at the University of Zürich from 1898 to 1927.
In his psychological research, following S. Freud and developing depth psychology, Bleuler used psychoanalytic methods to study the sphere of the unconscious. He also studied the “ambivalence of feelings,” a term that he introduced. (In addition, he introduced the terms “autism” and “schizophrenia,” which is also called Bleuler’s disease.) Bleuler studied the autistic thought process and schizophrenia. In collaboration with the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung, Bleuler introduced the concepts of the affective complex and associative experiment into psychopathology. According to Bleuler, all living acts (so-called psychoids) have three basic characteristics: integrative ability, memory function, and expedient character.
WORKS
Naturgeschichte der Seele und ihres Bewusstwerdens, 2nd ed. Berlin, 1932.Die Psychoide als Prinzip der organischen Entwicklung. Berlin, 1925.
Affektivität, Suggestibilität, Paranoia, 2nd ed. Halle, 1926.
Mechanismus—Vitalismus—Mnemismus. Berlin, 1931.
In Russian translation:
Rukovodstvo po psikhiatrii. Berlin, 1920.