Vladimir Mikhailovich Bechterew

Bechterew (1912)

Bechterew's grave in Saint Petersburg

Vladimir Mikhailovich spondylitis ( Russian Владимир Михайлович Бехтерев * January 20 ^{. Jul} / 1. February  1857 ^greg. In the village Sorali, Vyatka Governorate ; † 24. December 1927 in Moscow ) was a Russian neurologist , neurophysiologist and psychiatrist . He examined the structure of the brain, researched conditioned reflexes and was one of the leading proponents of behavioral reflex chain theory .

Life

Bechterew, the son of a police officer, studied at the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy , where he completed his medical degree in 1878. He began his medical career in the psychiatric clinic and completed his habilitation in neurology and psychiatry in 1881. From 1884 to 1885 he went on study trips, first staying briefly at the University of Berlin , then in Leipzig with Paul Flechsig , also worked here with Carl Ludwig and Justus Gaule (1849-1939) and Wilhelm Wundt . One of Bechterew's houses in Leipzig from those days (Paul-List-Straße 11) has been preserved. Even Paris , where he at Jean-Martin Charcot an intern, as well as visits in Halle / Saale , Munich and Vienna were part of the stay abroad. Back in Russia in 1885 he became professor of psychiatry in Kazan , where he reformed clinical teaching and established a “Society for Neurology and Psychiatry”. In 1893 he became professor of psychiatry at the Military Medical Academy in Saint Petersburg . In 1886 he founded the first Russian experimental psychological laboratory in Kazan and in 1903 the psychoneurological laboratory in Saint Petersburg , of which he became head from 1908.

In 1911, Bechterew gave a lecture at the First Congress of the “Association of Patriotic Psychiatrists” in Russia on the spread of suicide in his home country. He saw the war as a major cause of the suicide of many people, as the war deeply shook their mental equilibrium. His ideal was to increase “positive knowledge” and “positive knowledge” that would make all people smarter and more humane. Knowledge will help people to recognize themselves more deeply and to improve social conditions. Wars would also be avoidable on this basis.

Bechterew researched innate and learned reflexes. Independently of Ivan Pavlov , he developed a theory of conditioned reflexes. He is one of the founders of objective psychology with Russian characteristics and the fathers of behavioral therapy.

As a professor in Kazan, Bechterew was also active in neuroanatomy and had described the courses of neuronal pathways in the brain and spinal cord. The superior vestibular nucleus of the cranial nerve is synonymous with ankylosing spondylitis nucleus. Bechterew became world-famous for the spinal disease Morbus Bechterew ( Bechterew's disease ) named after him , which he was not the first to describe, but for which he provided a description that was particularly respected in the German-speaking world.

After the October Revolution , on Bechterew's initiative, the Institute for Brain Research was founded in Petrograd in May 1918 , which he headed until his death.

Vladimir Bechterew died of poisoning in 1927 at the age of 70. Allegedly, he was murdered at Stalin's orders after Bechterew had diagnosed the Secretary General two days earlier with severe paranoia . A few years later, Andrei Wyschinski, as Stalin's chief prosecutor , instructed a court to sentence Bechterew's son Pyotr to death and to send his family to a camp.

One of Bechterew's granddaughters was the neurophysiologist Natalja Petrovna Bechterewa .

Students and friends

The Russian doctor and psychoanalyst Leonid Drosnés (* 1880) was one of Vladimir Mikhailovich Bechterew's students . Drosnés was a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association and belonged to the circle around Sigmund Freud . Bechterew corresponded with the German brain researcher Paul Flechsig (1847-1929) and dedicated a work to this on the pathways of the brain. Flechsig referred to Bechterew in the letters that were found in St. Petersburg as his "honored friend". Bechterew did an internship at Flechsig during his stay in Germany in 1884/1885.

Honors

Since 1992, the Russian Academy of Sciences has awarded the WM Bechterew gold medal for outstanding achievements in the field of psychophysiology.

Fonts (selection)

• Objective psychology or psychoreflexology. The doctrine of the association reflexes. Teubner, Leipzig and Berlin 1913.
• Criminality in the light of objective psychology. Bergmann, Wiesbaden 1914.
• General principles of human reflexology . F. Deuticke, Leipzig and Vienna 1926. (New edition after the 3rd edition, published by Martin Pappenheim , Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2006).
• The collective reflexology. Carl Marhold Verlagsgesellschaft, Halle / Saale 1928.

literature

• Regine Pfrepper (ed.): Vladimir Michajlovič Bechterev (1857–1927): new materials for life and work . Shaker, Aschen 2007.
• Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Bechterew, Wladimir Michailovich von. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 158.

Web links

Commons : Wladimir Bechterew  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Vladimir Michailowitsch Bechterew in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and digital sources in full text (English) in the VLP project of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
• detailed biography and link collection (in English)
• Klaus Nerger: Science and Research. LII: Vladimir Mikhailovich Bechterew .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Birk Engmann: “Beginning of a glorious career”: Scientific relations between Germany and Russia in the 19th century in the field of neurology . Aachen, ISBN 978-3-8440-6405-6 .
2. ↑ Natalja Decker: Wladimir Michajlowitsch Bechterew . In: Wolfgang U. Eckart , Christoph Gradmann (Hrsg.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the 20th century . 3. Edition. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg / Berlin / New York 2006, pp. 35–36. doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
3. ↑ Natalja Decker: Reflections of Russian doctors on the First World War . In: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann (eds.): Medicine and the First World War . Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1996, pp. 49-50.
4. ↑ Юридическая психология в лицах: Владимир Михайлович Бехтерев (accessed September 9, 2018).
5. ↑ Donald Rayfield: Stalin and his executioners . Blessing Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-89667-181-2 , p. 198 f.
6. ↑ Zvi Lothane : Paul Flechsig, University Psychiatry and the First Biological Psychiatry , in: Zvi Lothane: Seelenmord und Psychiatrie. On the rehabilitation of Schreber, Library of Psychoanalysis, Psychosozial-Verlag 2004, p. 350.
7. ↑ WM Bechterew gold medal. Russian Золотая медаль имени В.М. Бехтерева . Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed May 1, 2018 (Russian, with list of award winners).