Otto Pötzl

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Otto Pötzl (born October 29, 1877 in Vienna ; † April 1, 1962 there ) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist . He was one of the most important representatives of the Viennese medical school and pioneer of the cognitive neurology or neuropsychology formerly known as brain pathology .

Life

Otto Pötzl was the son of the journalist and writer Eduard Pötzl . He studied medicine at the University of Vienna and became active in the Corps Alemannia Vienna in 1896 . After completing his studies on January 15, 1901, he entered the Second Psychiatric Clinic in the General Hospital as an intern under Richard von Krafft-Ebing in May 1902 and switched to the First Psychiatric Clinic as a university assistant on October 1, 1904 (sub-director Alexander Pilcz), which was in the kk Niederösterreichische Landesverrenanstalt am Brünnlfeld in Vienna. From October 1, 1905 back at the II. Psychiatric Clinic, which is now fromJulius Wagner-Jauregg , he followed his teacher and mentor from 1911 to the Psychiatric-Neurological University Clinic, which was now merged with the I. Psychiatric Clinic. In 1911 Pötzl qualified as a professor in psychiatry and neurology at the University of Vienna. In 1919 he became an associate professor . In 1922 he was appointed to succeed Arnold Pick as full professor of psychiatry at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague. As the successor to Wagner-Jauregg, he returned to his hometown and reached the height of his work as a full professor and head of the Vienna Psychiatric-Neurological University Clinic (1928–1945). He was buried in an honorary grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery .

The Nazi Party he joined in 1930 and again at 1 January 1941st

The physicist Johannes Pötzl (1930–1993) was his son.

Act

Under the influence of Giulio Bonvicini , for Pötzl an important teacher in the field of cognitive neurology or neuropsychology, which was formerly known as brain pathology, the first brain pathological work "On pure word blindness" was published in the yearbook of psychiatry in 1907. His lectures as a lecturer also dealt mainly with chapters from cerebral pathology, so he published his first work on central visual disorders and areas of aphasia teaching. In 1928, while still in Prague, Pötzl completed his first monograph: “On the optical-agnostic disorders” (Deuticke: Leipzig). In 1958, at the age of 80, he worked on the same topic in many respects in a monograph: "About the relationships of the cerebrum to the world of colors - derived from brain pathological findings" (Maudrich: Vienna) and supplemented and expanded it with the help of the ideas he had developed in the meantime. A number of the most varied of brain pathological studies are grouped around these two major landmarks.

From the abundance of more than 200 works by Pötzl, the most important areas of work are exemplified: A standard work published in 1926 with Georg Hermann on the brain pathology of disorders of writing: "About Agraphy" (S. Karger: Berlin), as well as publications on the most varied of temporal disorders and spatial perception as well as the so-called time-lapse phenomenon by him and Hans Hoff, further work on inverted and crooked vision, cortical polyopsies with disorders of depth vision; essential aspects of aphasia, especially aphasia of the polyglots, problems of alexia, amusia, anosognosia; the relationships between the vestibular and optical systems and cerebellar functions - Many of the cognitive functions of the human brain described by Pötzl are standard knowledge in clinical neuropsychology used today. Pötzl was also a sponsor of Manfred Sakel (insulin coma therapy).

Pötzl campaigned for many things at his clinic, including Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. “Pötzl was the first to introduce a lecture on psychoanalysis and a psychotherapeutic outpatient clinic at his clinic, not only in Austria but probably in the entire German-speaking area; this at a time when such a step was still a risk for a scientist of his reputation ”(quoted from Hubert J. Urban). From 1917 to 1933 he was also a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Association.

Otto Pötzl remained scientifically productive and stimulating many years after his retirement in 1945. Gerhart Harrer and Hubert Josef Urban tried to give an overview of life's work and personality in the “Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Otto Pötzl” published by Urban in 1949, which also contains numerous (37!) Works by his students from all over the world (Universitätsverlag Innsbruck).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 130 , 85
  2. ↑ Habilitation thesis: About brain swelling and its relationship to catatonia . Yearbook of Psychiatry, 1910
  3. ^ Otto Pötzl grave site , Vienna, Zentralfriedhof, Group 0, Row 1, No. 72.
  4. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , pp. 467 .
  5. ↑ Hans Bangen: History of the drug therapy of schizophrenia. Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-927408-82-4 . P. 46
personal data
SURNAME Pötzl, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1962
Place of death Vienna