Sigbert Josef Maria Ganser
Encyclopedia
Sigbert Josef Maria Ganser (24 January 1853, Rhaunen
, Rhine Province
– 4 January 1931, Dresden
, Saxony
) was a German psychiatrist
born in Rhaunen
. He earned his medical doctorate in 1876 from the University of Munich. Afterwards he worked briefly at a psychiatric clinic in Würzburg
, and later as an assistant to neuroanatomist
Bernhard von Gudden
(1824-1886) in Munich
. In 1886 he became a professor at the Dresden University of Technology
, and also head of the psychiatric department at Dresden
General Hospital.
Sigbert Ganser is remembered for a hysterical disorder that he first described in 1898. He discovered the disorder in three prisoners while working at a prison in Halle
. The features included approximate or nonsensical answers to simple questions, perceptual abnormalities and clouding of consciousness. Ganzer believed that these symptoms were an associative reaction caused by an unconscious attempt by the patient to escape from an intolerable mental situation. This disorder was to become known as Ganser syndrome
.
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 is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.-Location:...
, Rhine Province
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...
– 4 January 1931, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
) was a German 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 Rhaunen
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 is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.-Location:...
. He earned his medical doctorate in 1876 from the University of Munich. Afterwards he worked briefly at a psychiatric clinic in Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
, and later as an assistant to neuroanatomist
Neuroanatomy
Neuroanatomy is the study of the anatomy and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defined nervous systems, and thus we can begin to speak of...
Bernhard von Gudden
Bernhard von Gudden
Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden was a German neuroanatomist and psychiatrist born in Kleve.In 1848 he earned his doctorate from the University of Halle, and became an intern at the asylum in Siegburg under Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi...
(1824-1886) in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. In 1886 he became a professor at the Dresden University of Technology
Dresden University of Technology
The Technische Universität Dresden is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 36,066 students...
, and also head of the psychiatric department at Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
General Hospital.
Sigbert Ganser is remembered for a hysterical disorder that he first described in 1898. He discovered the disorder in three prisoners while working at a prison in Halle
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
. The features included approximate or nonsensical answers to simple questions, perceptual abnormalities and clouding of consciousness. Ganzer believed that these symptoms were an associative reaction caused by an unconscious attempt by the patient to escape from an intolerable mental situation. This disorder was to become known as Ganser syndrome
Ganser syndrome
Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder previously classified as a factitious disorder. It is characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions or doing things incorrectly, other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual...
.
Written works
- Über einen eigenartigen hysterischen Dämmerzustand Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1898, 30: 633-640
External links
- Emedicine (discussion about Ganser Syndrome)