Paul Ferdinand Schilder

Life & Legacy

Paul Ferdinand Schilder (February 15, 1886, Vienna – December 7, 1940, New York City) was an Austrian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and medical researcher.
Schilder's research work in both neurophysiology and neuropathology, coupled with an active interest in philosophy, led to his involvement in psychoanalysis. He became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society founded by Sigmund Freud, although he never underwent analysis himself. He deviated from accepted psychoanalytic doctrine (especially regarding the existence of a death drive) and published his own ideas. He started the integration of psychoanalytic theory into psychiatry, and he is considered one of the founding fathers of group psychotherapy. He also introduced the concept of the body image, which has proved a lasting contribution to psychological and medical thinking. He was a prolific author on a range of subjects.
As a biomedical researcher, he worked on the description of several conditions that were named after him (for example, the term 'Schilder's disease' can refer to a rare variant of multiple sclerosis also known as diffuse myelinoclastic sclerosis).