Book Description

Paul Eugen Bleuler (1857 - 1939) was a Swiss psychiatrist and eugenicist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness and for coining the terms "schizophrenia", "schizoid", "autism", and what Sigmund Freud called "Bleuler's happily chosen term ambivalence".This translation of the series of papers on the Theory of Schizophrenic Negativism by the gifted Swiss psychiatrist, Bleuler, is worthy of more than passing attention. The author here endeavors to explain the negativism which is found in dementia precox or schizophrenia, as he prefers to term it. He critically reviews the various theories which have been offered and presents the elucidation of the problem in a penetrating, keen and brilliant manner. The monograph is brief and to the point. Every sentence counts.Bleuler here explains his well-known theory of psychic ambivalence and ambitendency. By ambivalence, he says, is to be understood the specific schizophrenic characteristic to accompany identical ideas or concepts at the same time with positive as well as negative feelings (affective ambivalence), to will and not to will at the same time the identical actions (ambivalence of the will) and to think the same thoughts at once negatively and positively (intellectual ambivalence).Taking up the problem of negativism in particular, Professor Bleuler gives the predisposing causes of negativistic phenomena. The translation by White is very commendable and makes easy reading.This monograph is highly recommended to all those who are interested in psychopathology or psychiatry and in the make-up of the mind of man.