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Remembering Gjessing: 1887–1959
BIOL PSYCHIATRY 1988;24: 1-2
1
EDITORIAL
Remembering
Gjessing:
1887-1959
Though the birthday of Rolv Gjessing, the great Norwegian psychiatrist, was recently celebrated with international acclaim in Oslo, it would be surprising if one of a hundred American psychiatric residents were acquainted with his work. His son Leiv Gjessing, who continued his father’s work at the Dikemark Hospital, gave the Academic Lecture at our Society of Biological Psychiatry some 15 years ago, and has now kindly sent us a copy of a commemorative volume edited by a colleague, Dr. Ame Graven (1987). It serves to recall the life and work of a pioneer in the scientific study of mental disorder that we call biological psychiatry. Though born in Lindis, north of Bergen, as son of a minister, Rolv Gjessing and his family moved to Rumania soon afterwards, and then to Budapest where the boy attended a German school for eight years, talking Hungarian to his playmates and Norwegian at home. He continued his education in Norway, and actually began some scientific work while still a medical student. Upon graduation he worked for seven years in the public health system in the far north while at the same time undertaking an anthropometric study of the Lapps which he later published. In 1920, at the age of 32, he chose psychiatry as his specialty, and soon settled in Dikemark Hospital where he spent the next decades as director until at age 62 he resigned to give full time to his remarkable research on periodic catatonia. Because Gjessing had come to regard schizophrenia as a syndrome of varied etiology he felt it was important to concentrate his studies on a small number of distinctive cases, viz. periodic catatonia, and to follow them intensively. Since the recurrent episodes lasted only a couple of weeks the patients could be used as their own controls, while the characteristic motility changes could be objectively recorded with a seismograph attached to the bed. The data involved extraordinarily detailed and precise metabolic studies of a great many parameters plotted on continuous curves to observe correlations, a technique borrowed from a professor of meteorology who recorded climatic data in similar fashion. Many interesting correlations emerged, but Gjessing attached particular importance to the fluctuations in nitrogen balance, and believed there was a periodic retention of N metabolites which induced a toxic reaction in the subjects. He also found that stimulation of the metabolism with thyroxine was sometimes helpful. His major findings appeared in a series of publications in Archiv fiir Psychiatric und Nervenkrankheiten in the decades 1932-l 960, comprising a monumental contribution to psychiatry. Though this work now is several decades old it would be fruitful to reexamine it in the light of the new knowledge that technology has given us. It should be emphasized that in spite of his interest in objective data Gjessing was an excellent clinician and a skilled interviewer, alert to the psychological dimensions of psychiatry. By all accounts he was an admirable personality, modest in bearing, and attentive to others. He was well versed in literature and philosophy, played both violin and piano, wrote musical compositions of his own, and enjoyed close family ties. A Latin inscription hung in his laboratory: HIC EST LOCUS UBI SANGUIS URINQUE
Editorial
BIOL PSYCHIATKL I'JXX.3 I 1
ARCANA VITAE APERIANT-“This is the place where blood and urine reveal the secrets of life.” The integrity that inspired and pervaded his scientific work was revealed in other aspects of his life. When the Nazis overwhelmed Norway at the beginning of World War II they found or created a certain number of native Quislings to do their bidding. Gjessing was one of the first prominent Norwegians who defied them, at the risk of his life. When several craven Quislings on his staff called for his resignation he refused, and was thereupon arrested and held in custody by the Nazis. It at once became a cause &lPbre. All the chief medical officers in Oslo, as well as others in authority, threatened to resign in a body if he were not released, and the Germans released him in a week. This was one of the first organized efforts of resistance to the Germans, and helped initiate an opposition movement that ultimately prevailed. We are pleased to join in the commemoration of the birthday of Rolv Gjessing. Joseph
Wortis
References Gjessing RR (1976): Contribution to the Somatology of Periodic Catatonia. Jenner FA, eds) Oxford: Pergamon Press. Gravem A (ed) (1987): Rolv Gjessing: In Commemoration Dikemark Hospital Press.
(Gjessing LR and
of the Centenary of his Birth. Oslo:
1
EDITORIAL
Remembering
Gjessing:
1887-1959
Though the birthday of Rolv Gjessing, the great Norwegian psychiatrist, was recently celebrated with international acclaim in Oslo, it would be surprising if one of a hundred American psychiatric residents were acquainted with his work. His son Leiv Gjessing, who continued his father’s work at the Dikemark Hospital, gave the Academic Lecture at our Society of Biological Psychiatry some 15 years ago, and has now kindly sent us a copy of a commemorative volume edited by a colleague, Dr. Ame Graven (1987). It serves to recall the life and work of a pioneer in the scientific study of mental disorder that we call biological psychiatry. Though born in Lindis, north of Bergen, as son of a minister, Rolv Gjessing and his family moved to Rumania soon afterwards, and then to Budapest where the boy attended a German school for eight years, talking Hungarian to his playmates and Norwegian at home. He continued his education in Norway, and actually began some scientific work while still a medical student. Upon graduation he worked for seven years in the public health system in the far north while at the same time undertaking an anthropometric study of the Lapps which he later published. In 1920, at the age of 32, he chose psychiatry as his specialty, and soon settled in Dikemark Hospital where he spent the next decades as director until at age 62 he resigned to give full time to his remarkable research on periodic catatonia. Because Gjessing had come to regard schizophrenia as a syndrome of varied etiology he felt it was important to concentrate his studies on a small number of distinctive cases, viz. periodic catatonia, and to follow them intensively. Since the recurrent episodes lasted only a couple of weeks the patients could be used as their own controls, while the characteristic motility changes could be objectively recorded with a seismograph attached to the bed. The data involved extraordinarily detailed and precise metabolic studies of a great many parameters plotted on continuous curves to observe correlations, a technique borrowed from a professor of meteorology who recorded climatic data in similar fashion. Many interesting correlations emerged, but Gjessing attached particular importance to the fluctuations in nitrogen balance, and believed there was a periodic retention of N metabolites which induced a toxic reaction in the subjects. He also found that stimulation of the metabolism with thyroxine was sometimes helpful. His major findings appeared in a series of publications in Archiv fiir Psychiatric und Nervenkrankheiten in the decades 1932-l 960, comprising a monumental contribution to psychiatry. Though this work now is several decades old it would be fruitful to reexamine it in the light of the new knowledge that technology has given us. It should be emphasized that in spite of his interest in objective data Gjessing was an excellent clinician and a skilled interviewer, alert to the psychological dimensions of psychiatry. By all accounts he was an admirable personality, modest in bearing, and attentive to others. He was well versed in literature and philosophy, played both violin and piano, wrote musical compositions of his own, and enjoyed close family ties. A Latin inscription hung in his laboratory: HIC EST LOCUS UBI SANGUIS URINQUE
Editorial
BIOL PSYCHIATKL I'JXX.3 I 1
ARCANA VITAE APERIANT-“This is the place where blood and urine reveal the secrets of life.” The integrity that inspired and pervaded his scientific work was revealed in other aspects of his life. When the Nazis overwhelmed Norway at the beginning of World War II they found or created a certain number of native Quislings to do their bidding. Gjessing was one of the first prominent Norwegians who defied them, at the risk of his life. When several craven Quislings on his staff called for his resignation he refused, and was thereupon arrested and held in custody by the Nazis. It at once became a cause &lPbre. All the chief medical officers in Oslo, as well as others in authority, threatened to resign in a body if he were not released, and the Germans released him in a week. This was one of the first organized efforts of resistance to the Germans, and helped initiate an opposition movement that ultimately prevailed. We are pleased to join in the commemoration of the birthday of Rolv Gjessing. Joseph
Wortis
References Gjessing RR (1976): Contribution to the Somatology of Periodic Catatonia. Jenner FA, eds) Oxford: Pergamon Press. Gravem A (ed) (1987): Rolv Gjessing: In Commemoration Dikemark Hospital Press.
(Gjessing LR and
of the Centenary of his Birth. Oslo: