Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal
Encyclopedia
Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal (March 23, 1833 – January 27, 1890) was a German neurologist
and psychiatrist
from Berlin. He was the son of Otto Carl Friedrich Westphal
(1800-1879) and Karoline Friederike Heine and the father of Alexander Carl Otto Westphal
. He was married to Klara, daughter of the banker Alexander Mendelssohn.
, and subsequently became an assistant at the department for the mentally ill under Wilhelm Griesinger
(1817-1868) and Karl Wilhelm Ideler
(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.
", 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", which is known today as hepatolenticular degeneration, and 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
- 1840-1921). His name is also shared with neurologist Ludwig Edinger
(1855-1918) regarding the Edinger-Westphal nucleus
, which is an accessory nucleus of the third oculomotor nerve
(cranial nerve number III). He was the first physician to provide a clinical description of narcolepsy
and cataplexy
(1877). In 1880 French physician Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau
(1828-1906) also described the two maladies, coining the term narcolepsie.
A large portion of his written work dealt with diseases of the spinal cord and neuropathology
. He trained a number of prominent neurologists and neuropathologists, including Arnold Pick
, Hermann Oppenheim
, Carl Moeli
and Karl Wernicke
. His son, Alexander Carl 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
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.
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,...
and psychiatrist
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
from Berlin. He was the son of Otto Carl Friedrich Westphal
Otto Carl Friedrich Westphal
Otto Carl Friedrich Westphal , a prominent physician and Geheimer Sanitätsrath , wrote on the human eye and on optics. He was interested in environmental impacts on eyesight, including light quality, and argued that eyeglasses should be tailored to occupation...
(1800-1879) and Karoline Friederike Heine and the father of Alexander Carl Otto Westphal
Alexander Carl Otto Westphal
Alexander Carl Otto Westphal was the son of the psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal and Clara Mendelssohn and the grandson of Otto Carl Friedrich Westphal....
. He was married to Klara, daughter of the banker Alexander Mendelssohn.
Academic Career
After receiving his doctorate, he worked at the Berlin CharitéCharité
The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the medical school for both the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After the merger with their fourth campus in 2003, the Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe....
, and subsequently became an assistant at the department for the mentally ill under Wilhelm Griesinger
Wilhelm Griesinger
Wilhelm Griesinger was a German neurologist and psychiatrist born in Stuttgart. He studied under Johann Lukas Schönlein at the University of Zurich and physiologist François Magendie in Paris....
(1817-1868) and Karl Wilhelm Ideler
Karl Wilhelm Ideler
Karl Wilhelm Ideler was a German psychiatrist who was a native of Bentwisch. In 1820 he earned his doctorate from the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, and spent the next several years as a general practitioner in the cities of Bernau, Rathenow and Genthin. In 1828 he returned to Berlin as...
(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 "agoraphobiaAgoraphobia
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder defined as a morbid fear of having a panic attack or panic-like symptoms in a situation from which it is perceived to be difficult to escape. These situations can include, but are not limited to, wide-open spaces, crowds, or uncontrolled social conditions...
", 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", which is known today as hepatolenticular degeneration, and also demonstrated a relationship between tabes dorsalis
Tabes dorsalis
Tabes dorsalis is a slow degeneration of the sensory neurons that carry afferent information. The degenerating nerves are in the dorsal columns of the spinal cord and carry information that help maintain a person's sense of position , vibration, and discriminative touch.-Cause:Tabes dorsalis is...
(nerve degeneration in the spinal cord
Spinal cord
The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of nervous tissue and support cells that extends from the brain . The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system...
) and paralysis in the mentally insane.
Westphal is credited with describing a deep tendon reflex anomaly in tabes dorsalis
Tabes dorsalis
Tabes dorsalis is a slow degeneration of the sensory neurons that carry afferent information. The degenerating nerves are in the dorsal columns of the spinal cord and carry information that help maintain a person's sense of position , vibration, and discriminative touch.-Cause:Tabes dorsalis is...
that later became known as the "Erb-Westphal symptom" (named with neurologist Wilhelm Heinrich Erb
Wilhelm Heinrich Erb
Wilhelm Heinrich Erb was a German neurologist who was a native of Winnweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate.- Academic career :...
- 1840-1921). His name is also shared with neurologist Ludwig Edinger
Ludwig Edinger
Ludwig Edinger 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....
(1855-1918) regarding the Edinger-Westphal nucleus
Edinger-Westphal nucleus
The Edinger-Westphal nucleus is the accessory parasympathetic cranial nerve nucleus of the oculomotor nerve , supplying the constricting muscles of the iris...
, which is an accessory nucleus of the third oculomotor nerve
Oculomotor nerve
The oculomotor nerve is the 3rd of 12 paired cranial nerves. It enters the orbit via the superior orbital fissure and controls most of the eye's movements, including constriction of the pupil and maintaining an open eyelid by innervating the Levator palpebrae superiors muscle. The optic nerve is...
(cranial nerve number III). He was the first physician to provide a clinical description of narcolepsy
Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder, or dyssomnia, characterized by excessive sleepiness and sleep attacks at inappropriate times, such as while at work. People with narcolepsy often experience disturbed nocturnal sleep and an abnormal daytime sleep pattern, which often is confused with insomnia...
and cataplexy
Cataplexy
Cataplexy is a sudden and transient episode of loss of muscle tone, often triggered by emotions. It is a rare disease , but affects roughly 70% of people who have narcolepsy...
(1877). In 1880 French physician Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau
Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau
Jean-Baptiste-Édouard Gélineau was the French physician who first described narcolepsy....
(1828-1906) also described the two maladies, coining the term narcolepsie.
A large portion of his written work dealt with diseases of the spinal cord and neuropathology
Neuropathology
Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole autopsy brains. Neuropathology is a subspecialty of anatomic pathology, neurology, and neurosurgery...
. He trained a number of prominent neurologists and neuropathologists, including Arnold Pick
Arnold Pick
Arnold Pick was a Czech neurologist and 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 paramnesia. He was also to use the term dementia praecox .- External links...
, Hermann Oppenheim
Hermann Oppenheim
Hermann Oppenheim was one of the leading neurologists in Germany. He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin, Göttingen and Bonn. He started his career at the Charité-Hospital in Berlin as an assistant of Karl Westphal...
, Carl Moeli
Carl Moeli
Carl Franz Moeli 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 became an assistant to Carl Westphal in the psychiatric clinic at the Berlin-Charité...
and Karl Wernicke
Karl Wernicke
Carl Wernicke was a German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He earned his medical degree at the University of Breslau...
. His son, Alexander Carl Otto Westphal
Alexander Carl Otto Westphal
Alexander Carl Otto Westphal was the son of the psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal and Clara Mendelssohn and the grandson of Otto Carl Friedrich 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
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
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 ataxiaAtaxiaAtaxia is a neurological sign and symptom that consists of gross lack of coordination of muscle movements. Ataxia is a non-specific clinical manifestation implying dysfunction of the parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement, such as the cerebellum...
that begins in childhood. Named with Ernst Viktor von LeydenErnst Viktor von LeydenErnst Viktor von Leyden was a German internist from Danzig.Leyden studied medicine at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Institut in Berlin, and was a pupil of Johann Lukas Schönlein and Ludwig Traube . He was a medical professor at several universities, including Königsberg, Strassburg and Berlin...
(1832-1910). - Westphal's sign: The clinical correlate of the absence or decrease of patellar reflex or knee jerk.
- Westphal's syndrome: A familial form of intermittent hypocalcaemicHypocalcaemiaIn medicine, hypocalcaemia is the presence of low serum calcium levels in the blood, usually taken as less than 2.1 mmol/L or 9 mg/dl or an ionized calcium level of less than 1.1 mmol/L or 4.5 mg/dL. It is a type of electrolyte disturbance...
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-StrümpellAdolph StrümpellErnst Adolf Gustav Gottfried von Strümpell was a German neurologist who was born at Neu-Autz Estate, Courland Governorate...
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).
External links
- Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal @ Who Named ItWho Named ItWho Named It? is an English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though this is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliographies. It is hosted in Norway and maintained by medical...