[Richard Arwed Pfeifer. Aesthetics of "schizophrenic art" and brain research].
This paper concentrates on two aspects of the work of Leipzig brain researcher Richard Arwed Pfeifer (1877-1957). It has been little known that Pfeifer, like Prinzhorn, collected paintings by his schizophrenic patients. In works about these paintings, he tried to decipher their specific attraction and the possibility of differentiating artworks of sane artists from those of insane ones. From experimental research he concluded that the "demonic element" was of utmost importance, which however could temporarily be brought about by sane artists too. Trained in medicine and psychology by Wundt, Flechsig, and Niessl von Mayendorf, Pfeifer was appointed as the first associate professor of brain research in Germany in 1927. Until now he has been appreciated for reestablishing the angioarchitecture of the brain, mainly due to his works on the distribution of capillaries in the brain achieved by a particular method of injection which he developed. Moreover he contributed new findings on the interrelations of the capillaries and thus finally disproved the existence of so-called terminal arteries of Cohnheim.
Somburg
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Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie, Universität Leipzig, Semmelweisstrasse 10, 04103, Leipzig, Germany. oliver.somburg@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Steinberg
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D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000266:history*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004954:Esthetics / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D009462:Neurology / Q000266:history*; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history*