Edmund Jacobson (April 22, 1888 – January 7, 1983) was an American physician in internal medicine and psychiatry and a physiologist. He was the creator of

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a non-pharmacological method of deep muscle relaxation, based on the premise that muscle tension is the body's psychological response to anxiety-provoking thoughts and that muscle relaxation blocks anxiety. ...

and of Biofeedback.

Biography

He was born on April 22, 1888,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to Fannie and Morris Jacobson. His father was a realtor in Chicago, who was born in Strasbourg, and his wife Fannie was born in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

. He received a B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1908 in just two years. Jacobson received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. He returned to Chicago as an assistant in physiology. Here he obtained his M.D. degree from Rush Medical School in 1915. In 1921, he introduced the application of psychological principles to medical practice which was later called psychosomatic medicine. Employing low microvoltage apparatus, Jacobson also made the first accurate electrical measurement of muscular tonus, nerve impulses and mental activities in

neuromuscular A neuromuscular junction (or myoneural junction) is a chemical synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber. It allows the motor neuron to transmit a signal to the muscle fiber, causing muscle contraction. Muscles require innervation ...

sites in living men. Jacobson was able to prove the connection between excessive muscular tension and different disorders of body and psyche. He found out that tension and exertion was always accompanied by a shortening of the muscular fibres, that the reduction of the muscular tonus decreased the activity of the

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all p ...

, that relaxation was the contrary of states of excitement and well suited for a general remedy and

prophylaxis Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for the purposes of disease prevention.Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental hea ...

against psychosomatic disorders. In 1929, after twenty years of research, Jacobson began to publish his results in the book ''Progressive Relaxation''.Jacobson, E. (1938). ''Progressive relaxation.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press His major work, ''You Must Relax'', addressing the general public, came out in 1934. Jacobson deepened his investigations from 1936 through 1960 at the Laboratory for Clinical Physiology in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

which he directed, and he continued his investigations of simultaneous chemical and electronic recordings in man in health until the 1970s. He died on January 7, 1983, at Northwestern University Hospital in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

References

External links

Biography, from the ''International Journal of Psychosomatics''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobson, Edmund American physiologists Northwestern University alumni Harvard University alumni 1888 births 1983 deaths