Theodor Hermann Meynert (15 June 1833 – 31 May 1892) was a German-Austrian
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
,
neuropathologist and
anatomist
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
born in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. Meynert believed that disturbances in brain development could be a predisposition for psychiatric illness and that certain psychoses are reversible.
In 1861 he earned his medical doctorate, and in 1875 became director of the
psychiatric
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psy ...
clinic associated with the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hi ...
. Some of his better known students in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, timezone = CET
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, timezone_DST ...
were
Josef Breuer,
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
, who in 1883 worked at Meynert's psychiatric clinic, and
Julius Wagner-Jauregg
Julius Wagner-Jauregg (; 7 March 1857 – 27 September 1940) was an Austrian physician, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1927, and is the first psychiatrist to have done so. His Nobel award was "for his discovery of the therapeu ...
, who introduced fever treatment for syphilis. Meynert later distanced himself from Freud because of the latter's involvement with practices such as
hypnosis
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
. Meynert also ridiculed Freud's idea of male hysteria; though some authors believe this to be due to his own hidden suffering of the illness, prompting a reconciliation with Freud near to his death. Other famous students of Meynert's were Russian
neuropsychiatrist
Neuropsychiatry or Organic Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with psychiatry as it relates to neurology, in an effort to understand and attribute behavior to the interaction of neurobiology and social psychology factors. Within neuro ...
Sergei Korsakoff (1854–1900), German neuropathologist
Carl Wernicke
Carl (or Karl) Wernicke (; ; 15 May 1848 – 15 June 1905) was a German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is known for his influential research into the pathological effects of specific forms of encephalopathy and also ...
(1848–1905) and Swiss
neuroanatomist Auguste-Henri Forel
Auguste-Henri Forel (1 September 1848 – 27 July 1931) was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. For example, he is considered a ...
(1848–1931). Meynert's work was an important influence in the career of German neuropathologist
Paul Flechsig
Paul Emil Flechsig (29 June 1847, Zwickau, Kingdom of Saxony – 22 July 1929, Leipzig) was a German neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is mainly remembered today for his research of myelinogenesis.
Biography
Born in Zwickau, he ...
(1847–1929).
Brain research
Meynert's work was largely focused on brain anatomy,
pathology
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
and
histology
Histology,
also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures v ...
, including the mapping of its intricate pathways and topography. He made many contributions involving the study of the cellular architecture of the brain and is often considered to be the founder of
cerebral cortex cytoarchitectonics.
Meynert developed theories in regards to correlations between
neuroanatomical
Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defi ...
and mental processes. He conceptualized that a coupling between one mental association and its temporal successor as a literal contact between cortical nerve cells linked to one other by nerve fibers, and a series of cortical associations could therefore be construed as being a "train of thought". He also theorized that ideas and memories are to be envisioned as being attached to specific cortical cells.
In regards to
mental illness
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
, Meynert conceptualized that a conflict existed between the cerebral cortex and the sub-cortical regions as the primary cause for abnormal function of cerebral components. Also he formulated that a causal connection existed between cerebral pathologies and
psychoses
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is Reality, real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are thought disorder, incohe ...
due to a lack of "cerebral nutrition" related to
vasomotor
Vasomotor refers to actions upon a blood vessel which alter its diameter. More specifically, it can refer to vasodilator action and vasoconstrictor action.
Control Sympathetic innervation
Sympathetic nerve fibers travel around the tunica media of ...
functionality. Meynert's aim was to establish psychiatry as an exact science based on anatomy. In his 1884 textbook ''Psychiatrie. Klinik der Erkrankungen des Vorderhirns'', Meynert forewords with the statement:
"The reader will find no other definition of 'Psychiatry' in this book but the one given on the title page: Clinical Treatise on Diseases of the Forebrain
In the anatomy of the brain of vertebrates, the forebrain or prosencephalon is the rostral (forward-most) portion of the brain. The forebrain (prosencephalon), the midbrain (mesencephalon), and hindbrain (rhombencephalon) are the three primary ...
. The historical term for psychiatry, i.e., 'treatment of the soul,' implies more than we can accomplish, and transcends the bounds of accurate scientific investigation."
Anatomical terms
He has several anatomical structures named after him, including the
basal optic nucleus of Meynert, the
substantia innominata of Meynert and "Meynert cells", which are solitary pyramidal cells located in the
cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. The cerebral cortex mostly consists of the six-layered neocortex, with just 10% consisting o ...
near the
calcarine fissure. In 1869 Meynert described the dorsal tegmental
decussation of the left and right
tectospinal and tectobulbar tracts, located in the
mesencephalon (midbrain). This was to become known as "Meynert's decussation" or as "fountain decussation".
''Theodor Hermann Meynert''
@ Who Named It
''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...
Selected written works
* ''Die Bloßlegung des Bündelverlaufs im Großhirnstamme'', 1865
* ''Der Bau der Großhirnrinde und seine örtliche Verschiedenheiten nebst einem pathologisch-anatomischen Korollarium'', 1868 - Construction of the cerebral cortex and its local differences, including a pathological-anatomical corollary
In mathematics and logic, a corollary ( , ) is a theorem of less importance which can be readily deduced from a previous, more notable statement. A corollary could, for instance, be a proposition which is incidentally proved while proving another ...
.
*
Vom Gehirne der Säugethiere
' in Salomon Stricker
Salomon Stricker (1 January 1834 – 2 April 1898) was an Austrian pathologist and histologist.
Career
Stricker was born in Waag-Neustadtl (Hungarian: Vágújhely, now Nové Mesto nad Váhom in Slovakia). He studied at the University of Vienna, ...
's ''Handbuch der Lehre von den Geweben des Menschen und der Thiere'', 1872 - Treatise on the brain of mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur ...
s.
* ''Psychiatrie. Klinik der Erkrankungen des Vorderhirns, begründet auf dessen Bau, Leistungen und Ernährung'', 1884 - Psychiatry: clinical disorders of the forebrain
In the anatomy of the brain of vertebrates, the forebrain or prosencephalon is the rostral (forward-most) portion of the brain. The forebrain (prosencephalon), the midbrain (mesencephalon), and hindbrain (rhombencephalon) are the three primary ...
, based on its construction, performance and nutrition.
* ''Klinische Vorlesungen über Psychiatrie'', 1890 - Lectures on clinical psychiatry.
* ''Gedichte''; Poems (published posthumously by Dora von Stockert-Meynert). William Braumüller, Vienna and Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
in 1905.
Notes
* ''List of publications taken from an article on Theodor Meynert from the German Wikipedia.''
External links
*
The Neurological Origins of Psychoanalysis by Raymond E. Fancher
Review from Psychological Science Vol. 7, No. 2, March 1996 by Frederick Crews
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meynert, Theodor
1833 births
1892 deaths
German pathologists
Physicians from Dresden
People from the Kingdom of Saxony
University of Vienna alumni
Academics of the University of Vienna