Klaus Conrad - Die beginnende Schizophrenie, 1958

Klaus Conrad (19 June 1905 in Reichenberg – 5 May 1961 in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist with important contributions to

neuropsychology Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of t ...

and

psychopathology Psychopathology is the study of abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era. Biological psychopatholo ...

. He joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

(NSDAP) in 1940. He was best known as a professor of psychiatry and neurology, and director of the University Psychiatric Hospital in Göttingen from 1958 until his death. His main work: ''Die beginnende Schizophrenie. Versuch einer Gestaltanalyse des Wahns (1958)'', describes the early state 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 withdra ...

and the typical schizophrenic aspects. From this monograph, terms as "Trema", "Apophänie" ( apophany), and "Überstieg" were coined.

Frank Fish Frank James Fish (26 May 1917 – 13 June 1968) was the first professor of psychiatry at the University of Liverpool, and prior to that a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh. His publications helped bring the German tradi ...

, who had reviewed Conrad's book in 1960, used Conrad's approach in a neuropsychiatric case report the same year. An English language summary of Conrad's work and its influence was published in 2010 by Mishara.

References

1905 births 1961 deaths German psychiatrists Physicians in the Nazi Party Neuropsychologists German neurologists Schizophrenia researchers {{Germany-psychiatrist-stub