EUGEN BLEULER (1857 – 1939)

Eugen Bleuler was an important Swiss psychiatrist. He was born in Zollikon, south of Zurich. His father was a farmer. Bleuler decided to become a psychiatrist when his sister, who was five years older than him, became mentally ill. He studied in Zurich and Bern. In 1886, he became medical director of the Rheinau sanatorium and nursing home. Twelve years later, he became professor and director of the Burghölzli University Hospital in Zurich. Eugen Bleuler was married to Hedwig Bleuler-Waser. They had five children together. His son Manfred Bleuler also became a psychiatrist and later his successor at Burghölzli.

Together with Sigmund Freud and Emil Kraepelin, Eugen Bleuler founded the psychiatry of the 20th century. He coined the terms »schizophrenia« and »autism«. His work was based on the biographical understanding of illnesses. With the help of psychoanalysis, he tried to understand patterns of illness and invented »depth psychology«.
He saw fluid transitions between disorders and healthy states.

However, Bleuler also advocated the »theory of degeneration«, according to which mental illness is understood as an expression of »degeneration« that develops over generations. This theory soon merged with eugenic and later »racial hygiene« ideas.