Wilhelm Griesinger
Encyclopedia
Neurologist
A neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology, and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders.Neurology is the medical specialty related to the human nervous system. The nervous system encompasses the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. A specialist...
and 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...
born in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. He studied under Johann Lukas Schönlein
Johann Lukas Schönlein
Johann Lukas Schönlein was a German naturalist, and professor of medicine, born in Bamberg. He studied medicine at Landshut, Jena, Göttingen, and Würzburg...
at the University of Zurich
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....
and physiologist François Magendie
François Magendie
François Magendie was a French physiologist, considered a pioneer of experimental physiology. He is known for describing the foramen of Magendie. There is also a Magendie sign, a downward and inward rotation of the eye due to a lesion in the cerebellum...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
After receiving his doctorate he practiced medicine in several locations, including Winnethal in Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
, a private practice in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, the medical clinic in Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
and at the University of Kiel
University of Kiel
The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today...
. In the early 1850s he went to Egypt to head the medical school in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, and became a personal physician to Abbas I
Abbas I of Egypt
Abbas I , , also known as Abbas Hilmi I Pasha Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, was a son of Tusun Pasha and grandson of Muhammad Ali, founder of the reigning dynasty of Egypt and Sudan at the time...
. During his stay in Egypt, he gained experience regarding tropical diseases, and as a result published Klinische und anatomische Beobachtungen über die Krankheiten von Aegypten (1854) and Infectionskrankheiten (1857).
In 1854 he returned to the University of Tübingen as a professor of clinical medicine, succeeding his friend Carl Wunderlich
Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich
Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich was a German physician, pioneer psychiatrist, and medical professor...
(1815-1877) as director of the Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
medical clinic. In 1859 Griesinger became head of an institution for mentally handicapped children in the small town of Mariaberg, and from 1860 participated in the planning of the Burghölzli
Burghölzli
Burghölzli is the common name given for the psychiatric hospital of the University of Zürich, Switzerland. The hospital is located on "Burghölzli", a wooded hill in the district of Riesbach of southeastern Zürich....
Mental Hospital in Zurich
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...
. In 1865 he moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and succeeded Moritz Heinrich Romberg
Moritz Heinrich Romberg
Moritz Heinrich Romberg was a Jewish physician from Berlin who published his classic textbook in sections between 1840 and 1846; Edward Henry Sieveking translated it into English in 1853....
as director at the university polyclinic. In Berlin he established two influential psychiatric journals; Medicinisch-psychologische Gesellschaft and the Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten. In 1868, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
.
Griesinger is remembered for his reforms concerning the mentally ill and the asylum system. He believed in integration of the mentally ill into society, and proposed that short-term hospitalization be combined with close cooperation of natural support systems. He also provided valuable insights concerning the nature of psychopathic behavior. Today, the Wilhelm Griesinger Hospital in Berlin is named in his honor.
Associated eponyms
- Griesinger's sign: ErythemaErythemaErythema is redness of the skin, caused by hyperemia of the capillaries in the lower layers of the skin. It occurs with any skin injury, infection, or inflammation...
and edemaEdemaEdema or oedema ; both words from the Greek , oídēma "swelling"), formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy, is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin or in one or more cavities of the body that produces swelling...
over the mastoid processMastoid processThe mastoid process is a conical prominence projecting from the undersurface of the mastoid portion of the temporal bone. It is located just behind the external acoustic meatus, and lateral to the styloid process...
due to septic thrombosisThrombosisThrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel is injured, the body uses platelets and fibrin to form a blood clot to prevent blood loss...
of the mastoid emissary vein and thrombophlebitisThrombophlebitisThrombophlebitis is phlebitis related to a thrombus . When it occurs repeatedly in different locations, it is known as "Thrombophlebitis migrans" or "migrating thrombophlebitis".-Signs and symptoms:...
of the sigmoid sinus.
Published Works
- Herr Ringseis und die naturhistorische Schule. (Mr. RingseisJohann Nepomuk von RingseisJohann Nepomuk von Ringseis was a German physician born in Schwarzhofen, Oberpfalz.He received his education at the University of Landshut, where he was a student of Andreas Röschlaub . Afterwards he furthered his studies in Vienna and Berlin , and in 1816 moved to Munich as a personal physician...
and the Natural History School) Archiv für physiologische Heilkunde 1 (1842) - Theorien und Thatsachen. (Theories and Facts) Archiv für physiologische Heilkunde 1 (1842).
- Über den Schmerz und über die Hyperämie. (Concerning Pain and Congestion) Archiv für Physiologische Heilkunde 1 (1842)
- Über psychische Reflexaktionen. Mit einem Blick auf das Wesen der psychischen Krankheiten. (Concerning Mental Reflex Actions. With a Glance at the Nature of Mental Illnesses) Archiv für physiologische Heilkunde 2, s. 76 (1843)
- Neue Beiträge zur Physiologie und Pathologie des Gehirns. (New Contributions to the Physiology and Pathology of the Brain) Archiv für physiologische Heilkunde (1844)
- Pathologie und Therapie der psychischen Krankheiten. (Pathology and treatment of Mental Diseases) Stuttgart: Krabbe, 1845. 2.Aufl. Braunschweig 1861
- Ueber Schwefeläther-Inhalationen. (Concerning Sulfur-ether Inhalation) Archiv für physiologische Heilkunde 6, ss. 348–350 (1847)
- Bemerkungen über das Irrenwesen in Württemberg. (Remarks about the Misleading Nature in Württemberg) Württemb. Medic. Correspondenzblatt. (1848/49)
- Klinische und anatomische Beobachtungen über die Krankheiten von Aegypten. (Clinical and Anatomical Observations on the Diseases of Egypt) Archiv für physiologische Heilkunde 13, ss. 528–575 (1854)
- Infectionskrankheiten. (Infectious Diseases) W: VirchowRudolf VirchowRudolph Carl Virchow was a German doctor, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician, known for his advancement of public health...
's Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie. Erlangen 1857. - Zur Kenntnis der heutigen Psychiatrie in Deutschland. Eine Streitschrift gegen die Broschüre des Samitätsrats Dr. Laehr in Zehlendorf: "Fortschritt? – Rückschritt!". (To the Attention of Today's Psychiatry in Germany, etc) Leipzig: Wigand, 1868.
- Über Irrenanstalten und deren Weiter-Entwicklung in Deutschland. ((About Asylums and their further Development in Germany) Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten 1 (1868)
- Gesammelte Abhandlungen. (Collected Essays) 2 Bde. Berlin: Hirschwald, 1872.