XI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2019

Biography

Born into a small civil servant in the village of Sorali, Yelabuga district, Vyatka province, allegedly on January 20, 1857 (he was baptized on January 23, 1857). He was a representative of the ancient Vyatka Bekhterevs family. Educated at the Vyatka gymnasium and St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy. Upon completion of the course (1878), Bekhterev devoted himself to the study of mental and nervous diseases, and for this purpose worked at the clinic of prof. I.P. Merzheevsky.

In 1879, Bekhterev was accepted as a full member of the Petersburg Society of Psychiatrists. And in 1884 he was sent abroad, where he studied with Dubois-Raymond (Berlin), Wundt (Leipzig), Meinert (Vienna), Charcot (Paris), and others. The defense of his doctoral dissertation (April 4, 1881) was approved by privat - Associate Professor of St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy, and since 1885 was a professor at Kazan University and head of a psychiatric clinic of a district Kazan hospital. While working at the University of Kazan, he created a psycho-physiological laboratory and founded the Kazan Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists. In 1893 he headed the Department of Nervous and Mental Diseases of the Medical-Surgical Academy. In the same year he founded the journal Neurological Herald. In 1894, Vladimir Mikhailovich was appointed a member of the medical council of the Ministry of the Interior, and in 1895, he was a member of the military medical council under the Minister of War and then also a member of the council of the mental institution. From 1897 he also taught at the Women's Medical Institute.

He organized the Society of Psychoneurologists and the Society of Normal and Experimental Psychology and the Scientific Organization of Labor in St. Petersburg. He edited the journals "Review of Psychiatry, Neurology and Experimental Psychology", "Study and education of the individual", "Questions of the Study of Labor" and others. In November 1900, the two-volume book of Bekhterev “Conductive pathways of the spinal cord and brain” was nominated by the Russian Academy of Sciences for the prize named after academician KM Baer. In 1900, Bekhterev was elected chairman of the Russian Society of Normal and Pathological Psychology.

After the completion of the seven volumes of the Fundamentals of the Doctrine of the Functions of the Brain, Bekhterev's special attention as a scientist began to attract problems of psychology. On the basis of the fact that mental activity arises as a result of the work of the brain, he considered it possible to rely mainly on the achievements of physiology, and, above all, on the theory of combination (conditioned) reflexes. In the years 1907-1910 Bekhterev published three volumes of the book "Objective Psychology". The scientist argued that all mental processes are accompanied by reflex motor and autonomic responses that are available for observation and registration.

He was a member of the editorial committee of the multivolume “Traite international de psychologie pathologique” (“International treatise on pathological psychology”) (Paris, 1908–10) for which he wrote several chapters. In 1908 in St. Petersburg the Psychoneurological Institute founded by Bekhterevym began.

In May 1918, Bekhterev applied to the Council of People's Commissars with a petition to organize the Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activity. Soon the Institute opened, and its director until his death was Vladimir Bekhterev. In 1927 he was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR.

He died suddenly on December 24, 1927 in Moscow, a few hours after he was poisoned with canned food. There is a version that the death of Bekhtereva is associated with the consultation, which he gave to Stalin shortly before his death [1]. But there is no direct evidence that one event is related to another [2]. Among the closest students of V. M. Bekhtereva, there was, of course, never published, his own version of the teacher's death: death at the moment of intimate closeness with one of the young employees, the so-called "sweet death" in the terminology of French authors.

Scientific contribution

Bekhterev investigated a large number of psychiatric, neurological, physiological, morphological and psychological problems. In his approach, he always focused on a comprehensive study of the problems of the brain and man. Carrying out the reformation of modern psychology, he developed his own doctrine, which he consistently designated as objective psychology (from 1904), then as psycho reflexology (from 1910) and as reflexology (from 1917). He paid special attention to the development of reflexology as a complex science of man and society (different from physiology and psychology), designed to replace psychology.

  Widely used the concept of "nervous reflex". Introduced the concept of "combination-motor reflex" and developed the concept of this reflex. He discovered and studied the pathways of the spinal cord and human brain, described some brain structures. Established and identified a number of reflexes, syndromes and symptoms. Bekhterev's physiological reflexes (scapular-humeral, large spindle reflex, expiratory, etc.) allow determining the state of the corresponding reflex arcs, and pathological reflexes (Mendel-Bechterew's back-and-stop reflex, wrist-finger reflex, Bechterew-Jacobson reflex) reflect the defeat of the pyramidal paths.

He described some diseases and developed methods for their treatment (“Postencephalitic symptoms of Bechterew”, “Psychotherapeutic triad of Bechterew”, “Phobic symptoms of Bechterew”, etc.). In 1892, Bechterev was described "stiffness of the spine with curvature as a special form of the disease" ("Ankylosing spondylitis", "Ankylosing spondylitis"). Such diseases as “choreic epilepsy”, “syphilitic multiple sclerosis”, “acute cerebellar ataxia of alcoholics” were distinguished by Bechterevs. Created a number of drugs. "Bechterew's Mixture" was widely used as a sedative.

For many years he investigated the problems of hypnosis and suggestion, including alcoholism. Over 20 years studied the issues of sexual behavior and child rearing. Developed objective methods for studying the neuropsychic development of children.

He repeatedly criticized psychoanalysis (the teachings of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and others). But at the same time he contributed to the theoretical, experimental, and psychotherapeutic works on psychoanalysis, which were carried out at the Institute for the Study of the Brain and Mental Activities headed by him.

In addition, Bekhterev developed and studied the relationship between nervous and mental diseases, psychopathy and circular psychosis, the clinic and the pathogenesis of hallucinations, described a number of forms of obsessive states, various manifestations of mental automatism. For the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases, he introduced a combination of reflex therapy of neurosis and alcoholism, psychotherapy by the method of distraction, collective psychotherapy.

References

Владимир Михайлович Бехтерев — биография [Электронный ресурс] URL: https://goo.gl/jjqHHn дата доступа: 18.03.2019.

Бехтерев Владимир Михайлович [Электронный ресурс] URL: https://goo.gl/VJqutV дата доступа: 18.03.2019.

Бехтерев, Владимир Михайлович [Электронный ресурс] URL: https://goo.gl/md0zjV дата доступа: 18.03.2019.