Bumke

Bumke, Oswald (Oswald Bumke, b. 1877), professor of psychiatry in Munich, one of the most prominent German psychiatrists. Among his early works, his research on pupillary disorders in mentally and nervously ill patients deserves attention, in which he noted, among other things, the frequent absence of psychological pupillary reaction in early dementia. In 1911, B. published a work "On Nervous Degeneration," the second edition of which—"Culture and Degeneration"—was published in Russian in 1925. In 1917, B. released a major work "Diagnosis of Mental Illnesses"; the second, revised edition of this book was titled "Textbook of Mental Illnesses" ("Lehrbuch der Geisteskrankheiten", Munich, 1924) and is one of the best modern guides on psychiatry. B. is not among the original thinkers; he is rather a very conscientious and talented eclectic, avoiding abstract speculation and preferring the firm ground of clinical experience. Distinctive features of his works are clarity and systematicity of thought, combined with elegance of style and vividness of presentation. B. is critical of the nosological direction in psychiatry. He does not share the hereditarily-biological fatalism evident in some works of Mendelian psychiatrists, is a convinced supporter of Bongoeffer's teaching on the exogenous type of reactions, and attaches great importance to the role of exogenous factors in the etiology even of psychoses such as, for example, schizophrenia. Bumke is also a popularizer: he authored—a brochure intended for wide circles of readers about errors in judgments regarding the mentally ill, a brief introduction to psychology, and a work on the unconscious.