The somatic school was a group of nineteenth century German psychiatrists, including Carl 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 ....

, Christian Friedrich Nasse

Christian Friedrich Nasse

Christian Friedrich Nasse was a German psychiatrist who was born in Bielefeld. He studied medicine at the University of Halle under physiologist Johann Christian Reil , and following graduation returned to Bielefeld as a general practitioner and later director of a hospital for the poor...

 and Carl Friedrich Flemming

Carl Friedrich Flemming

Carl Friedrich Flemming was a German psychiatrist born in Jüterbog. He was the father of cellular biologist Walther Flemming ....

, who taught that insanity is a symptom of biological diseases located outside the brain, particularly diseases of the abdominal and thoracic viscera, akin to the delirium caused by many acute biological illnesses. Their approach differed from that of the physiological school, represented by Wilhelm Roser

Wilhelm Roser

Wilhelm Roser was a German surgeon and ophthalmologist born in Stuttgart.In 1839 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Tübingen, and afterwards continued his education in Würzburg, Halle, Vienna and Paris. In 1841 he returned to Tübingen, where he was habilitated for surgery...

, 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....

 and Carl Wunderlich

Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich

Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich was a German physician, pioneer psychiatrist, and medical professor...

, who insisted on there being a brain lesion

Lesion

A lesion is any abnormality in the tissue of an organism , usually caused by disease or trauma. Lesion is derived from the Latin word laesio which means injury.- Types :...

underlying every case of insanity, even if in some instances that lesion is the product of a pre-existing, extra-cerebral biological illness.