Manfred Bleuler (4 January 1903 – 4 November 1994) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internati ...

physician and psychiatrist. Following in the footsteps of his father, doctoral supervisor, and colleague,

Eugen Bleuler Paul Eugen Bleuler (; ; 30 April 1857 – 15 July 1939) was a Swiss psychiatry, psychiatrist and humanist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness. He coined several psychiatric terms including "schizophrenia", " ...

, Manfred Bleuler was devoted primarily to the study and treatment of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wi ...

. For his contributions, he received the Stanley R. Dean Award in 1970 and the

Marcel Benoist Prize The Marcel Benoist Prize, offered by the Marcel Benoist Foundation, is a monetary prize that has been offered annually since 1920 to a scientist of Swiss nationality or residency who has made the most useful scientific discovery. Emphasis is pl ...

in 1972.

Biography

Bleuler studied medicine at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 ...

as well as in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

and

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situ ...

. He trained at the Kantonales Krankenhaus

Liestal Liestal (, Standard ), formerly spelled Liesthal, is the capital of Liestal District and the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, south of Basel. Liestal is an industrial town with a cobbled-street Old Town. The official language of Li ...

and, mostly, in the US, at Boston Psychopathic Hospital,

Boston City Hospital The Boston City Hospital (1864–1996), in Boston, Massachusetts, was a public hospital, located in the South End. It was "intended for the use and comfort of poor patients, to whom medical care will be provided at the expense of the city, and . ...

, and Bloomingdale Hospital in New York. In 1933, he was appointed the chief physician in the psychiatric departments at St. Pirminsberg,

Pfäfers Pfäfers is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Sarganserland in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The villages Pfäfers, St. Margrethenberg, Vadura, Valens, Vasön and Vättis belong to the municipality. History The ...

, and the University Clinic,

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...

. In 1942, Bleuler became the Professor of Psychiatry at

and the Director of the University Psychiatric Clinic at

Burghölzli The ''Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Zürich'' (Psychiatric University Hospital Zürich) is a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. As a research hospital, it is associated with the University of Zürich. It is also called Burghölzli, after t ...

, where he stayed until his retirement in 1969. Manfred Bleuler has been praised as the foremost Bleuler scholar, providing valuable insight into his father's seminal ''Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias''. However, Bleuler himself greatly contributed to the study of the disorder, especially then the topics of late onset schizophrenia, chronic versus acute schizophrenia, and prognosis assessment. Perhaps the most critically, Bleuler first evaluated the impact of environmental variables on the development and outcome of schizophrenia in detail.Rosenthal, D. (1974)

Selected works

Bleuler, M. (1972) Die schizophrenen Geistesstörungen: im Lichte langjähriger Kranken und Familiengeschichten. New York: Intercontinental Medical Book Corporation (U.S. distributor). Bleuler, M., & Bleuler, R. (1986). Dementia Praecox oder Gruppe der Schizophrenien: Eugen Bleuler. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 661–664.

References

1903 births 1994 deaths Swiss psychiatrists 20th-century Swiss physicians {{psychiatrist-stub