Forel, Auguste

   (1848–1931)

   Known for his histological interests and his writings on hypnotism and sexuality, Forel was born on his parents’ farm in Waadt Canton in Switzerland, acquired scientific interests (especially in ants) early in life, and, after * In his Psychopathology (Die Psychopathologie) in 1913, Karl Jaspers considered epidemic hysteria to be a form of "induced insanity (the psychic epidemics)" (p. 340). hearing Gustav Huguenin’s and Bernhard von Gudden’s lectures at the Burghölzli in Zurich, resolved to study psychiatry. After training in neurohistology with Theodor Meynert (1833–1892) in Vienna from 1871 to 1873, he got a post as assistant physician with Gudden (who had in the meantime come to Munich as professor of psychiatry) at the Provincial Asylum of Upper Bavaria, doing his Habilitation in Munich in 1877 on neuroanatomy. In 1879, he returned to Zurich and became soon thereafter professor of psychiatry and director of the university psychiatric clinic. In 1887, almost simultaneously with the Leipzig anatomy professor Wilhelm His (1831–1904)—who also was of Swiss origin—Forel developed the "neuron theory" of communication in the central nervous system. He did so via a procedure called "experimental degeneration," cutting a brain tract then observing the results.

   In 1898, Forel resigned his professorship and retired to rural Switzerland where, having abandoned his neuroanatomical work, he devoted himself to research on sexual problems; his 1905 book, The Sexual Question (Die Sexuelle Frage) sold more than100,000 copies in German and was translated into 11 languages. In addition to his research on sexuality and neuroanatomy (he was so familiar with brain architecture that he described the location of his own stroke), Forel was known for his hostility to alcohol and for an interest in hypnotism; he was also an international authority on ants.