Christian Friedrich Nasse (April 18, 1778 - April 18, 1851) was a German psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 who was born in Bielefeld

Bielefeld

Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...

. He studied medicine at the University of Halle under physiologist Johann Christian Reil

Johann Christian Reil

Johann Christian Reil was a German physician, physiologist, anatomist and psychiatrist. He coined the term psychiatry or, in German, Psychiatrie in 1808....

 (1759–1813), and following graduation returned to Bielefeld as a general practitioner and later director of a hospital for the poor. In 1815 he returned to Halle as a lecturer at the university, and from 1819 to 1851 was a professor at the University of Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

.

Nasse was a member of the somatic school

Somatic school

The somatic school was a group of nineteenth century German psychiatrists, including Carl Jacobi, Christian Friedrich Nasse and Carl Friedrich Flemming, who taught that insanity is a symptom of biological diseases located outside the brain, particularly diseases of the abdominal and thoracic...

 of psychiatry that was popular during the first half of the 19th century in Germany. He believed that diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders depended on investigation of the somatic activity of a patient, formulating his belief system on the basis that physical disease produced a disturbance in the relationship between the psyche and the body. He was interested in the works of Johann Friedrich Herbart

Johann Friedrich Herbart

Johann Friedrich Herbart was a German philosopher, psychologist, and founder of pedagogy as an academic discipline....

 (1776–1841), and skeptical of natural philosophers. Nasse is credited for introducing the practical experience of "bedside diagnosis" into the university lecture hall.

In 1818 he founded a journal for psychiatrists called Zeitschrift für psychische Ärzte (later renamed Jahrbücher für Anthropologie). In addition, with Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi

Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi

Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi was a German psychiatrist who was a native of Düsseldorf. He was the son of philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi ....

 (1775–1858), he published a short-lived journal titled Zeitschrift für Heilung und Beurtheilung krankhafter Seelenstörungen (Journal for the Healing and Diagnosis of Pathological Mental Disorders.

• Associated eponym:
• Nasse's law: Law that states that hemophilia occurs only in males but is transmitted through unaffected females.

Selected written works

• Handbuch der speciellen Therapie, (1826–28)
• Handbuch der allgemeinen Therapie, (1840)
• Vermischte Schriften psychologischen und physiologischen Inhalts (1850)
• Untersuchungen zur Physiologie und Patholoqie (1835–39)