CME INDIA Presentation by ⚜ Dr. M. Gowri Sankar, MD, Senior Assistant Professor, Dept. of General Medicine, Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore.
Today’s History Feature:
Prof. Dr. Eugen Bleuler
(Apr 30, 1857 – Jul 14, 1939)
💠Swiss Psychiatrist
💠Pioneer in the field of Psychosis
His contributions…
🔹Bleuler was from a farmer background. When he was young, his elder sister suffered from mental illness and was treated in an asylum. This painful experience stimulated him to become a psychiatrist to help patient with similar illness.
🔹He studied medicine and got graduated from the University of Zurich in 1881.
🔹After completing of his studies, he made a medical study trip to many countries and worked with various psychiatrists and neuroanatomists.
🔹After that, he got appointed as a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Zurich and later became a Director of the Burgholzli Asylum in Zurich.
🔹In the year 1908, he coined the term “Schizophrenia” to describe the disorder, which was previously known as Dementia praecox. He derived the term schizophrenia from Greek root Schizo (split) and phren (mind) -Describing the fragmented thinking of patients with this disorder.
🔹He further introduced the concept of primary and secondary symptoms of schizophrenia. The primary symptoms are 4As:
🔅Abnormal Affect
🔅Autism
🔅Ambivalence
🔅Abnormal Associations
🔹He called social withdrawal, delusions, hallucinations as secondary symptoms.
🔹In fact, Dr. Bleuler had an intimate friendship with Dr. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.
🔹Thereby, Dr. Bleuler was fascinated by psychoanalysis and became one of the first to grant psychoanalysis to treat psychosis.
🔹Moreover, he published the following publications during his time…
🔅In 1911, he published his monograph Dementia Praecox or The Group of Schizophrenia.
🔅In 1916, his book called Treatment in Psychiatry was published and was the standard book in psychiatry for decades.
A Day to Commemorate…
An Intellectual Man
A Rational Psychiatrist
Prof. Dr. Eugen Bleuler 🙏🏼
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