A Mobius Strip: Fin-De-Siecle Neuropsychiatry and Paul Mobius

In this intriguing book, Francis Schiller describes the philosophy, life, and work of Paul Mbius, tracing through them the beginnings of modern neuropsychiatry. Freud called Mbius "a pioneer of psychotherapy." The grandson of the inventor of the Mbius strip, he made important contributions to both neurology and psychiatry. The Leipzig physician had come to the study of medicine by way of philosophy. Consistent with his own "nonmaterialistic monism," he sought a unifying solution to the age-old problem of the relationship between the mind and the brain. Schiller aptly uses the geometrical puzzle invented by Mbius's grandfather to illustrate Mbius's view of this relationship.

A Mbius Strip is a unique exploration of nineteenth-century views of the "mind-body problem" and of the relationship between disorders of the brain and the psyche. It sheds light on the origins of modern psychotherapy and the concept of the unconscious, the formulation of hysteria as a psychogenic disorder, the localization of function in the brain, the relationship between neurology and psychiatry, and turn-of-the-century ideas about sex and behavior.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.