Sergei Korsakoff

Sergei Sergeyevich Korsakov (Russian: Сергей Сергеевич Корсаков; * 22 Januarjul / February 3 1854greg in Gus - Chrustalny, .. .. † 1 Maijul / May 14 1900greg in Moscow) was a Russian neurologist.

He studied medicine at the University of Moscow. After graduating in 1875, he worked from 1876 in a mental hospital and had ample opportunity to observe the effects of alcoholism. In 1880 he published the first detailed description of an occurring mainly in alcoholics form of amnesia. In 1887, he described several cases of alcohol-related polyneuropathy with marked mental syndromes. For his work on alcoholic paralysis in 1887 he received the medical doctor degree.

In 1888 he was a lecturer and in 1892 director of a new Psychiatric University Hospital and associate professor. He was for a time in Vienna to visit and in that time a student of Theodor Meynert.

Korsakov was one of the greatest psychiatrists of the 19th century and has published numerous works in the fields of neuropathology, psychiatry and forensic medicine. He conducted research in particular on alcohol psychosis, introduced the term paranoia and wrote an excellent book Psychiatry. He was anxious patients more humane, to treat without coercive measures, which was not particularly popular with the clinic staff ( "The less compulsion for the patient, the more coercion for the doctor ").

Korsakov regretted that students have had to waste their energies for simple necessities of life, when they really should concentrate on their studies. As chairman of the " Society for the Promotion for needy students," he tried to ease their financial situation. But he also had expectations to the students: " First of all I would like that all students recognize the natural necessity of their training that they love Science and ignorance despise ... you want to study for the great privilege, students have to make sacrifices ... "

After Korsakoff amnestic syndrome a ( Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome) and psychosis ( Korsakoff's syndrome) are named in alcoholics.