Classic Text No. 134: ‘A case of Wernicke-Bostroem’s expansive autopsychosis’, by Ib Ostenfeld (1944)

Abstract

Expansive autopsychosis, grouped with cycloid psychoses – an illness entity of double origin: (1) Morel’s notion degeneracy, reformulated by Magnan and Legrain (reflected in Wimmer’s concept: psychogenic psychosis); (2) Wernicke’s, Kleist’s, Bostroem’s (and later Leonhard’s) notion of these purportedly independent conditions. Locked in the Danish language, Strömgren and Ostenfeld provided important contributions to this field, exemplified by Ostenfeld’s casuistry, translated in this Classic Text.