Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal (23 March 1833, in Berlin – 27 January 1890, in
Kreuzlingen Kreuzlingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second-largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of about 22,000. ...
) was a German psychiatrist from Berlin. He was the son of Otto Carl Friedrich Westphal (1800–1879) and Karoline Friederike Heine and the father of Alexander Karl Otto Westphal (1863-1941). He was married to Klara, daughter of the banker Alexander Mendelssohn.


Academic career

After receiving his doctorate, he worked at the Berlin
Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research Cen ...
, and subsequently became an assistant in the department for the mentally ill under
Wilhelm Griesinger Wilhelm Griesinger (29 July 1817 – 26 October 1868) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Stuttgart. Life and career He studied under Johann Lukas Schönlein at the University of Zurich and physiologist François Magendie in Pa ...
(1817–1868) and
Karl Wilhelm Ideler Karl Wilhelm Ideler (25 October 1795 – 29 July 1860) was a German psychiatrist. He was born in Bentwisch and died in Kumlosen near Wittenberge. Life and career In 1820 he earned his doctorate from the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, a ...
(1795–1860). In 1869 he became an associate professor of psychiatry, as well as a clinical instructor in the department for mental and nervous diseases, In 1874 he attained the title of full professor of psychiatry.


Achievements in medicine

Westphal's contributions to medical science are many; in 1871 he coined the term "agoraphobia", when he observed that three male patients of his displayed extreme anxiety and feelings of dread when they had to enter certain public areas of the city. He is credited with providing an early diagnosis of "pseudosclerosis", a disease known today as
hepatolenticular degeneration Wilson's disease is a genetic disorder in which excess copper builds up in the body. Symptoms are typically related to the brain and liver. Liver-related symptoms include vomiting, weakness, fluid build up in the abdomen, swelling of the legs, ...
. He also demonstrated a relationship between tabes dorsalis (nerve degeneration in the spinal cord) and paralysis in the mentally insane. Westphal is credited with describing a deep tendon reflex anomaly in tabes dorsalis that later became known as the "Erb–Westphal symptom" (named with neurologist
Wilhelm Heinrich Erb Wilhelm Heinrich Erb (30 November 1840 – 29 October 1921) was a German neurologist. He was born in Winnweiler, and died in Heidelberg. Academic career In 1864 he received his medical degree from the University of Heidelberg, where for sev ...
(1840–1921). His name is also shared with neurologist
Ludwig Edinger } Ludwig Edinger (13 April 1855 – 26 January 1918) was an influential German anatomist and neurologist and co-founder of the University of Frankfurt. In 1914 he was also appointed the first German professor of neurology. Edinger was born i ...
(1855–1918) regarding the Edinger–Westphal nucleus, which is an accessory nucleus of the
oculomotor nerve The oculomotor nerve, also known as the third cranial nerve, cranial nerve III, or simply CN III, is a cranial nerve that enters the orbit through the superior orbital fissure and innervates extraocular muscles that enable most movements of ...
(cranial nerve number III; CN III). He was the first physician to provide a clinical description of narcolepsy and cataplexy (1877). French physician
Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau (23 December 1828 – 2 March 1906) was the French physician who first described narcolepsy. Gélineau was born in Blaye, Gironde, and had a varied life. As a young student at the Rochefort Navy Medical School he ...
(1828–1906), also described the two maladies, coining the term ''narcolepsie'' in 1880. A large portion of his written work dealt with diseases of the spinal cord and neuropathological issues. He trained a number of prominent neurologists and
neuropathologist Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the clinic ...
s, including
Arnold Pick Arnold Pick (20 July 18514 April 1924) was a Jewish Czech psychiatrist. He is known for identifying the clinical syndrome of Pick's disease and the Pick bodies that are characteristic of the disorder. He was the first to name reduplicative paramne ...
, Hermann Oppenheim,
Karl Fürstner Karl Fürstner (7 June 1848 - 25 April 1906) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Strasburg, Uckermark. He studied medicine in Würzburg and Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1871. In 1872 he was an assistant at the patho ...
,
Carl Moeli Carl Franz Moeli (10 May 1849 – 4 November 1919) was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Kassel. He studied medicine in Marburg, Würzburg and Leipzig followed by work as an assistant at clinics in Rostock and Munich. In 1880 he bec ...
and
Karl 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 ...
. His son, Alexander Karl Otto Westphal (1863–1941) was also a psychiatrist, and is associated with the Westphal-Piltz syndrome (neurotonic pupillary reaction). Westphal, in addition to his multiple contributions to neurology and neuroanatomy, has been credited with introducing rational and non-censorious treatment to psychiatric hospitalization in Germany.
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
credits Westphal for the birth of the modern homosexual, with his paper published in 1870 on "contrary sexual feeling", in which he describes two people dealing with what would later come to be known as homosexuality. This appears to be one of the first medical accounts of sexuality as a psychiatric disorder.


Additional eponyms

* "Westphal-Leyden ataxia": Acute ataxia that begins in childhood. Named with
Ernst Viktor von Leyden Ernst Viktor von Leyden (20 April 1832 – 5 October 1910) was a German internist from Danzig. Biography He studied medicine at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Institut in Berlin, and was a pupil of Johann Lukas Schönlein (1793–1864) and Lud ...
(1832-1910). * " Westphal's sign": The clinical correlate of the absence or decrease of patellar reflex or
knee jerk The patellar reflex, also called the knee reflex or knee-jerk, is a stretch reflex which tests the L2, L3, and L4 segments of the spinal cord. Mechanism Striking of the patellar tendon with a reflex hammer just below the patella stretches the mus ...
. * "Westphal's syndrome": A familial form of intermittent hypocalcaemic paralysis.


Selected writings

* ''Die Konträre Sexualempfindung: Symptom eines neuropathologischen (psychopathischen) Zustandes'' in: Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1869–70; 2: 73–108. * ''Die Agoraphobie, eine neuropathische Erscheinung''. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1871–72; 3: 138–161. * ''Ueber einige durch mechanische Einwirkung auf Sehnen und Muskeln hervorgebrachte Bewegungs-Erscheinungen (Knie-, Fussphänomen)''. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1875,5: 803–834. * ''Eigentümliche mit Einschlafen verbundene Anfälle''. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1877; 7: 631–635. (described Westphal-Leyden ataxia). * ''Über eine dem Bilde der cerebrospinalen grauen Degeneration ähnliche Erkrankung des centralen Nervensystems ohne anatomischen Befund, nebst einigen Bemerkungen über paradoxe Contraction''. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 1883, 14: 87–134. (described Westphal's sign and Westphal– Strümpell pseudosclerosis). * ''Über einen merkwürdigen Fall von periodischer Lähmung aller vier Extremitäten mit gleichzeitigem Erlöschen der elektrischen Erregbarkeit während der Lähmung''. Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift, 1885,22: 489–491, 509–511. (described Westphal's syndrome).
Who Named It, Bibliography


Translations

* Westphal, K. (2006). ''Contrary sexual instinct: Symptom of a neuropathic (psychopathic) Condition''. (M. Lombardi-Nash, Trans.). Jacksonville, FL: Urania Manuscripts. (Original work published 1869)


See also

* Westphal's sign


References


External links


''Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal''
at Who Named It {{DEFAULTSORT:Westphal, Karl German neurologists 1833 births 1890 deaths Mendelssohn family Humboldt University of Berlin faculty German psychiatrists History of psychiatry Physicians of the Charité