Adolph Albrecht Erlenmeyer (11 July 1822 – 9 August 1877) was a German physician and psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 born in Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

.

He studied medicine in Marburg

Marburg

Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...

, Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

 and Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. At the University of Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

 he studied under surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

 Karl Wilhelm Wutzer (1789–1863), and after receiving his doctorate from the University of Berlin, he was an assistant to psychiatrist Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi

Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi

Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi was a German psychiatrist who was a native of Düsseldorf. He was the son of philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi ....

 (1777–1858) at the asylum in Siegburg

Siegburg

--122.148.78.228 05:06, 14 November 2011 Siegburg is a city in the district of Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany...

. As a young man, Erlenmeyer was influenced by Jacobi's somatic

Somatic Psychology

Somatic psychology is an interdisciplinary field involving the study of the body, somatic experience, and the embodied self, including therapeutic and holistic approaches to body. The word somatic comes from the ancient Greek somat . The word psychology comes from the ancient Greek psyche and logia...

 approach to psychiatry, and felt that there needed to be a close unity of psychiatry and neurology.

In 1848 he opened a private asylum in Bendorf bei Koblenz

Bendorf

Bendorf is a town in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, approx. 7 km north of Koblenz.-Structure of the city:The city has the following neighbourhoods:*Bendorf*Sayn*Mülhofen...

 that was to become known as Asyl für Gehirn- und Nervenkranke. During the ensuing years the facility expanded, eventually having a department of neurology

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

 (1866) and an "agricultural colony" called Albrechtshöhe (1867).

In 1854 Erlenmeyer became a co-founder of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und gerichtliche Psychologie (German Society for Psychiatry and Forensic Psychology). His son, psychiatrist Friedrich Albrecht Erlenmeyer (1849–1926) is remembered for his research of morphine addiction.

Published works

• Die Gehirnatrophie der Erwachsenen (Brain Atrophy in Adults) 1852
• Wie sind Seelenstörungen in ihrem Beginne zu behandeln? (How Psychic Disturbances should be Treated in their Beginning). 1860; Later translated into several languages.
• Die subcutanen Injectionen der Arzneimittel (Subcutaneous Injections) 1866
• Die Embolie der Hirnarierien (Embolism of the Cerebral Arteries) 1867
• Die luetischen Psychosen (Syphilitic Psychoses) 1876