[In quest of objectivity - The concept of reflexology as an attempt towards a mechanistic doctrine of psychics]. / Auf der Suche nach Objektivität ­ das Reflexologie-Konzept als Versuch einer mechanistischen Seelenkunde.

The concept of reflexology had been mainly developed in Russia in the first three decades of the 20th century. It could be regarded as a distinct and universal concept which was to explain both psychic diseases, healthy conditions, and psychology of masses. Moreover, it had been influenced behaviourism and, likewise, was an answer for the search of an objective method for investigation of the psyche. Main protagonists were Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev and Naum Efimovich Ishlondsky (Ischlondsky) whose works underwent international dissemination.

Naum Efimovich Ischlondsky: a forgotten protagonist of the concept of reflexology.

The present article reports on the life and work of a protagonist of the concept of reflexology. While the concept itself has its roots in Russia, in Ivan Petrovich Pavlov's research on conditioned reflexes, and was then shaped to a large extent by Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev, the contributions of Naum Efimovich Ischlondsky (Ishlondsky) have been largely forgotten. Moreover, he developed this concept throughout his life up to the 1960s, by which time he was living in the USA. In contrast, in the Soviet Union, the concepts of reflexology based on the work of Bechterev and his followers had already been abandoned by the 1930s for largely political reasons.

[Vladimir Bekhterev - A Protagonist of Research on Hypnosis?] / Vladimir Bechterev ­ ein Protagonist der Hypnoseforschung?

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (1857-1927) is considered to be Russia's most famous neurologist and psychiatrist. In German-speaking countries his name is particularly connected with the orthopaedic disease ankylosing spondylitis or Bekhterev's disease. He mainly worked in neuroanatomical, physiological and psychiatric fields. In a late autobiographical script, Bekhterev saw himself primarily as the protagonist of Russian research on hypnosis and hypnotherapy. That is why this article scrutinizes important works by Bekhterev in the field of hypnosis and reveals how these have influenced his late work on reflexology.

[Emil Kraepelin's time in Dorpat - Did this stay made marks in Russian and Soviet psychiatry?] / Die Dorpater Zeit von Emil Kraepelin ­ Hinterließ dieser Aufenthalt Spuren in der russischen und sowjetischen Psychiatrie?

In Russia, German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) is regarded as an influential and famous personality in the history of the field. This study discusses whether it was his period in the Russian Empire in the years 1886 to 1891 when he worked at Dorpat University (today Tartu, Estonia) that raised his popularity in Russia. Our research shows that all of his writings which had been translated into Russian language derive from a period much later than Dorpat. Moreover, none of his students has ever reached a scientific position which would have enabled him to become a proponent of Kraepelin's ideas in Russia. Despite his stay at Dorpat was important for Kraepelin's scientific development, it had no major impact on Russian psychiatry.The later perception of Kraepelin in Russia and in the Soviet Union is quite inconsistent. At some point of time, his works on experimental psychology were appreciated, which was probably connected with the rise of reflexology in Russian and, especially, Soviet psychiatry. On the other hand, it was Kraepelin's merits in the classification of psychiatric diseases that have mainly been acknowledged.