Carl Friedrich Flemming

Carl Friedrich Flemming was a German psychiatrist born in Jüterbog. He was the father of cellular biologist Walther Flemming.
After receiving his medical doctorate from Berlin, he worked as an assistant at the Irrenheilanstalt Sonnenschein near Pirna. From 1830 to 1854 he was director of the new psychiatric hospital at Sachsenberg, and afterwards maintained a private practice in Schwerin.
In 1844 he introduced the term dysthymia mutabilis to describe a disorder that is an alternation of dysthymia atra and dysthymia candida. He was part of the somatic school who held that insanity is a symptom of biological diseases located outside the brain, particularly diseases of the abdominal and thoracic viscera, akin to the delirium caused by many acute biological illnesses.
Flemming died in Wiesbaden.

Written works

De noctis circa morbos efficacia, etc;. Die Menschenseele, 1830 - The human soul.Die Thierseele, 1830 - The animal soul.Die Irren-Heilanstalt Sachsenberg bei Schwerin im Großherzogthum Mecklenburg: Nachrichten über ihre Entstehung, Einrichtung, Verwaltung und bisherige Wirksamkeit, 1833. Pathologie und Therapie der Psychosen. Nebst Anhang: Über das gerichtsärztliche Verfahren bei Erforschung krankhafter Seelenzustände, 1859 - Pathology and treatment of psychosis, with appendix, etc.Ueber Geistesstörungen und Geisteskranke, 1872 - On mental disorders and the mentally illZur Klärung des Begriffs der unbewussten Seelen-Thätigkeit, 1877 - Clarification on the concept of unconscious mental activity.