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 Freud and associate of Carl Jung, 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).

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Bleuler, Eugen

(born April 30, 1857, Zollikon, Switz.—died July 15, 1939, Zollikon) Swiss psychiatrist. He is best known for his studies of schizophrenia and for introducing (1908) the term for the disorder previously called dementia praecox. Bleuler argued (against accepted wisdom) that schizophrenia was more than one disease, was not always incurable, and did not always progress to full dementia. He described the basic symptoms—disordered mental associations and splitting or fragmentation of the personality—but believed that many cases were not apparent. He insisted that psychosis did not need to result from organic brain damage and could have psychological causes instead. His Textbook of Psychiatry (1916) became a standard text.

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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.

REFERENCES

Kannabikh, Iu. V. Istoriia psikhiatrii. [Moscow], 1929.