Edda Neele (born 15 December 1910 in Elberfeld, Wuppertal, died 16 February 2005) was a German psychiatrist, and a student and collaborator of

Karl Kleist Karl Kleist (born 31 January 1879 in Mulhouse, Alsace, died 26 December 1960) was a German neurology, neurologist and psychiatry, psychiatrist who made notable advances in descriptive psychopathology and neuropsychology. Kleist coined the terms un ...

, who worked at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

Neuropsychiatric Clinic. Along with Karl Leonhard, she was among Kleist's most prolific disciples and contributed significantly to popularizing the terms unipolar (‘einpolig’) and bipolar (‘zweipolig’) that are now used in the concepts of unipolar depression and bipolar disorder, and which had been coined by Kleist. Her 1949

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

dissertation, a study of "cyclical psychoses" admitted to the Frankfurt University Neuropsychiatric Clinic between 1938 and 1942, was the first written publication which used the terms "unipolar disorder" and "bipolar disorder." She was the first woman to write a Habilitation in psychiatry in Germany. She later had a private practice as a psychiatrist in Frankfurt until she retired in 1986, aged 76. During the national socialist era, she was, influenced by the theologian

Karl Barth Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Calvinist theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Declara ...

, a member of the Confessing Church, which actively opposed national socialism. She later became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and served as Vice President of the CDU women's movement in Hesse in the 1960s. She was a personal friend of health minister Elisabeth Schwarzhaupt, Germany's first female member of the federal government. She was a CDU candidate in Hesse in the

1965 West German federal election Federal elections were held in West Germany on 19 September 1965 to elect the members of the 5th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU remained the largest faction, while the Social Democratic Party remained the largest single party in the Bundestag, winning ...

.Die Volksvertretung 1946–1972
/ref> The Edda Neele Foundation, founded in 1995, is named in her honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neele, Edda German psychiatrists Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians 1910 births 2005 deaths Scientists from Frankfurt German women psychiatrists