Burghölzli
Encyclopedia
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. The hospital is located on "Burghölzli", a wooded hill in the district of Riesbach of southeastern Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
.
The history of the hospital began in the early 1860s, when internist Wilhelm Griesinger
Wilhelm Griesinger
Wilhelm Griesinger was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Stuttgart. He studied under Johann Lukas Schönlein at the University of Zurich and physiologist François Magendie in Paris....
at the University of Zurich made plans for the creation of a modern psychiatric clinic for humane treatment of the mentally ill. Although Griesinger died before the building was established in 1870, he is considered the founder of Burghölzli. From 1870 until 1879, the hospital had three directors, Bernhard von Gudden
Bernhard von Gudden
Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden was a German neuroanatomist and psychiatrist born in Kleve.In 1848 he earned his doctorate from the University of Halle, and became an intern at the asylum in Siegburg under Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi...
, Gustav Huguenin
Gustav Huguenin
Gustav Huguenin was a Swiss internist and pathologist who was a native of Krauchthal.He studied medicine at the Universities of Zürich, Prague, Vienna and Berlin, and in 1864 received his doctorate...
and Eduard Hitzig
Eduard Hitzig
Eduard Hitzig was a German neurologist and neuropsychiatrist born in Berlin.He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin and Würzburg, and had as instructors, famous men such as Emil Du Bois-Reymond , Rudolf Virchow , Moritz Heinrich Romberg and Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal...
. All three men practiced medicine from a biological basis, with brain pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
and physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
being the general focus of their research.
Auguste-Henri Forel
Auguste-Henri Forel
Auguste-Henri Forel was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist and psychiatrist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. For example, he is considered a co-founder of the neuron theory...
was the fourth director of Burghölzli, and spent nearly twenty years at the helm. Under his leadership, the hospital began to gain recognition throughout the medical world. Forel was able to combine the "dynamic approach" of French psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
with the biological orientation of the German school of psychiatric thought. In 1898 Eugene Bleuler became director of the Burghölzli, where he would remain until 1927. The "Bleuler era" is considered the most illustrious period at the hospital, largely due to the advent of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
, usage of Freudian psychiatric theories, and the creative work of Bleuler's assistant, Carl Gustav Jung. Bleuler was followed as director by Hans-Wolfgang Maier and afterwards by his son Manfred Bleuler.
In addition to Jung, many renowned psychiatrists spent part of their career at the Burghölzli, including Karl Abraham
Karl Abraham
-Further reading:* Freud, S. . Mourning and Melancholia. Standard Edition, 14, 305-307.* May-Tolzmann, U. . The Discovery of the Bad Mother: Abraham’s contribution to the theory of Depression...
, Ludwig Binswanger
Ludwig Binswanger
Ludwig Binswanger was a Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology...
, Hermann Rorschach
Hermann Rorschach
Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, best known for developing a projective test known as the Rorschach inkblot test. This test was reportedly designed to reflect unconscious parts of the personality that "project" onto the stimuli...
, Franz Riklin
Franz Riklin
Franz Riklin was a Swiss psychiatrist. Early in his career he worked at the Burghölzli Hospital in Zurich under Eugen Bleuler , and studied experimental psychology with Emil Kraepelin and Gustav Aschaffenburg in Heidelberg. Beginning in 1904 he was a physician at the psychiatric clinic in Rheinau...
, Constantin von Monakow, Adolf Meyer
Adolf Meyer (psychiatrist)
Adolf Meyer, M.D., LL.D., , was a Swiss psychiatrist who rose to prominence as the president of the American Psychiatric Association and was one of the most influential figures in psychiatry in the first half of the twentieth century...
, Abraham Brill
Abraham Brill
Abraham Arden Brill was an Austrian psychiatrist. He was born in Austria, and graduated from New York University, in 1901, M.D. Columbia University, 1903. He had arrived in the United States alone at the age of 13.After studies with C. G...
and Emil Oberholzer
Emil Oberholzer
Emil Oberholzer was a psychiatrist who was a native of Zweibrücken, Germany. Beginning in 1908, he received psychiatric training under Eugen Bleuler in Zurich, and afterwards was an assistant at the psychiatric clinic in Schaffhausen from 1911 to 1916...
. Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
's son, Eduard Einstein
Eduard Einstein
Eduard Einstein was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the second son of physicist Albert Einstein and his first wife Mileva Marić. Einstein and his family moved to Berlin in 1914, but shortly thereafter Marić returned to Zürich, taking Eduard and his brother with her.Eduard was a good student and had...
was a patient at Burghölzli. Today the Burghölzli important center for psychiatric research and the treatment of mental illness.