Sigbert Josef Maria Ganser (24 January 1853,

Rhaunen Rhaunen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It was the seat of the former ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Rhaunen ...

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...

– 4 January 1931,

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 larg ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

) was a German

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 ...

born in

. He earned his medical doctorate in 1876 from the University of Munich. Afterwards he worked briefly at a psychiatric clinic in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

, and later as an assistant to neuroanatomist

Bernhard von Gudden Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden (7 June 1824 – 13 June 1886) was a German neuroanatomist and psychiatrist born in Kleve. Career In 1848, von Gudden earned his doctorate from the University of Halle and became an intern at the asylum in Siegbu ...

(1824-1886) in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. In 1886, he became head of the psychiatric department at

General Hospital. Among his students was neurologist Hans Queckenstedt (1876-1918). Sigbert Ganser is remembered for a

hysterical disorder Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive attention-seeking behaviors, usually beginning in early childhood, including inappropriate s ...

that he first described in 1898. He identified the disorder in three prisoners while working at a prison in

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

. The features included approximate or nonsensical answers to simple questions, perceptual abnormalities, and clouding of consciousness. Ganser believed that these symptoms were an associative reaction caused by an unconscious attempt by the patient to escape from an intolerable mental situation. The disorder was to become known as

Ganser syndrome Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions and other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual pseudohallucinations and a decreased state ...

Written works

* ''Über einen eigenartigen hysterischen Dämmerzustand'' Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1898, 30: 633–640. English translation by C.E. Schorer: "A peculiar hysterical state". British Journal of Criminology, 1965, 5: 120–126. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder. 3rd edition, Washington, American Psychiatric Association, D. C., 1987, pp. 77.Ganser's syndrome
@ Who Named It

Notes

External links

Emedicine
(discussion about Ganser Syndrome) 1853 births 1931 deaths German psychiatrists People from Oldenburg (state) Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni History of psychiatry {{Germany-psychiatrist-stub