Background
Eugen Bleuler was born in Zurich on April 30, 1857 to Johann Rudolf Bleuler, a wealthy farmer, and Pauline Bleuler-Bleuler.
(Excerpt from Affectivity, Suggestibility, Paranoia In or...)
Excerpt from Affectivity, Suggestibility, Paranoia In order to proceed farther it will be necessary to attempt the formulation of a clear conception of what we mean by the term affectivity, a conception with which we can operate and which comprises all that is meant by the terms "feeling," "mood," "affect," and "emotion." As we shall see the word "feeling" has too broad a significance, while the meanings of the other three words are too narrow. Just as is the case in other fields, philosophical psychology does not help us to clearly circumscribe our conceptions. The Stoics in describing the feelings as "indefinite cognitions," had in mind something which in most text-books on psychiatry is not included in the conception of feelings; they thought pre-eminently of intellectual processes. To the scholastics the feelings were either a desire for the good -or an aversion to the bad, in other words pleasure and displeasure, to which was added a certain ethical value, and a special emphasis upon the voluntaristic principle which is always contained in the "feelings." If Hegel calls feeling "intelligence on the threshold of its immediateness," and Volkmar "the becoming conscious of the degree of tension of ideation," we can not deny that these are words which mean little more than nothing to the practical psychologist, the psychopathologist; nor are we any better off when we take into account the explanations which are always indispensable for the understanding of such "definitions." Kant expressed himself most clearly and correctly on this subject, but without effect upon his successors however, whose conceptions are not much clearer than those of the earlier philosophers. In the general part of the text-books on psychiatry we find as a rule fairly clear statements. Here pleasure and displeasure in combination with the affects represent the concept to which we refer. But not infrequently psychiatrists go beyond this concept, the limits of whi
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(Excerpt from Textbook of Psychiatry The first edition of...)
Excerpt from Textbook of Psychiatry The first edition of the textbook which appeared in 1916 was a crystallization of Bleuler's long experience as a teacher and investi gator and contained a systematic presentation of his important psychopathological formulations and their application in clinical analysis. The warm reception accorded the book is attested by the fact that four editions have already appeared. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(As a rule, however, the negativistic reaction does not ap...)
As a rule, however, the negativistic reaction does not appear merely as accidental, but as actually preferred to the correct reaction. In ordinary external negativism which consists in the negation of external influences (E x. Command) and of what one would normally expect the patient to do (E x. Defaecation in the closet instead of the bed), the following causes are at work: (a) The autistic withdrawing of the patient into his phantasies, which makes every influence acting from without comparatively an intolerable interruption. This appears to be the most important factor. In severe cases it alone is sufficient to produce negativism. () The existence of a hurt (negative complex, unfulfilled wish) which must be protected from contacts. (c) The misunderstanding of the surroundings and their purpose. (d) Direct hostile relations to. the surroundings. (e) The pathological irritability of the schizophrenic. () The pressure of thought and other difficulties of action and of thought, through which every reaction becomes painful. (g) The sexuality with its ambivalent feeling tones is also often one of the roots of negativistic reaction. Inner negativism (contrary tendencybpposed to the will, and intellectually opposed to the right thought is accounted for, in large part, by ambitendency and ambivalency, which in view of the inner splitting of the thought renders intelligible a slight preference for the negativistic reaction. Very pronounced phenomena of inner negativism probably have other cooperating causes, which we, at the present time, do not know. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.) About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology. Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of his
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Eugen Bleuler was born in Zurich on April 30, 1857 to Johann Rudolf Bleuler, a wealthy farmer, and Pauline Bleuler-Bleuler.
He studied medicine in Zürich and graduated in 1881.
After taking his medical degree at the University of Zurich, he spent his professional life as director of the Burghölzi hospital, a neurological clinic near Zurich, and as professor of psychiatry at the University of Zurich. Bleuler's approach to mental illness included an appreciation of the importance of motivational factors in abnormal behavior, as well as an understanding that some of these motivational factors may be "unconscious, " that is, not recognized by the patient himself. Consequently, he was attracted to certain aspects of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical theory. Bleuler began an early correspondence with Freud, and he appointed as his chief assistant at the Burghölzi one of Freud's followers, Carl Jung. Also on the staff of the Burghölzi was another Freudian psychiatrist, Karl Abraham. Bleuler was present at the first International Psycho-Analytic Congress in Salzburg in April 1908. The first periodical devoted exclusively to psychoanalysis, Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen, was directed by Freud and Bleuler and edited by Jung. Disagreements, both professional and personal, arose between Jung and Bleuler and, eventually, between Freud and Bleuler. Jung finally resigned his position at the Burghölzi, and Bleuler resigned from both the Swiss and the International psychoanalytic associations. Defining Schizophrenia Bleuler's contributions to psychiatry were in the field of psychosis. At the time he began his work, psychiatrists tended to think of dementia praecox (early insanity) as a single disorder. Bleuler argued that it was in fact a group of disorders which shared certain symptoms, such as a lack of contact with reality. He coined the term "schizophrenia" (splitting of the mind) as a general classification for these abnormalities. His choice of the term was dictated by his belief that the most characteristic aspect of the disorder was a splitting or dissociation of the patient's total personality. In this regard, Bleuler also introduced the term "ambivalence, " which refers to the often conflicting feelings and emotions, both positive and negative, that schizophrenics, and indeed even normal individuals, feel toward the same person, idea, or object. It has been suggested that Bleuler's own conflict with orthodox Freudian psychoanalysis may have been motivated in part by his puritanical feelings about sex and alcohol and may provide an example of his own concept of ambivalence. Another aspect of schizophrenic behavior studied by Bleuler was the tendency of some patients to withdraw from contact with the reality of the outside world and to live in an "inner world" of their own making. He termed this escape from outer to inner life "autism. " Bleuler died in Zurich on July 15, 1939.
(Excerpt from Affectivity, Suggestibility, Paranoia In or...)
(Excerpt from Textbook of Psychiatry The first edition of...)
(As a rule, however, the negativistic reaction does not ap...)
He believed the disease's central characteristics to be the product of a process of splitting between the emotional and the intellectual functions of the personality. He favoured early discharge from hospital into a community environment to avoid institutionalisation.