Otto Binswanger

Who was Otto Binswanger?

Otto Ludwig Binswanger was a Swiss psychiatrist and neurologist who came from a famous family of physicians; his father was founder of the Kreuzlingen Sanatorium, and he was uncle to Ludwig Binswanger who was a major figure in the existential psychology movement. He was brother-in-law to physiotherapist Heinrich Averbeck.

He studied medicine in Heidelberg, Strasbourg and Zurich, and beginning in 1877, worked under Ludwig Meyer in the psychiatric clinic at the University of Göttingen. He was later associated with the pathological institute in Breslau, and in 1880 was appointed chief physician under Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal in the psychiatric and neurological clinic at Charité Hospital in Berlin. From 1882 until 1919, he was a professor and director of psychology at the University of Jena. At Jena he worked with several young neurologists that included Theodor Ziehen, Oskar Vogt, Korbinian Brodmann, and Hans Berger. In 1911 he attained the title of rector at the university.

Binswanger wrote over 100 publications, most notably on epilepsy, neurasthenia and hysteria. His 1899 textbook on epilepsy became a standard in the profession. In his histopathological research he sought to explain similarities and differences between progressive paralysis and other types of organic brain disease. With neurologist Ernst Siemerling, he was co-author of an influential textbook on psychiatry titled Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie.