Josef Gerstmann

Biography

• Born on 1887
• World War I, he served in the medical corps in the Italian Alps
• 1924 – described finger agnosia (Gerstmann syndrome)
• 1928 – professor and head of the neuropsychiatric unit in Vienna
• 1938 – emigrated to America to escape Nazi persecution – clinical and research psychiatry in Maryland, Washington, and New York.
• Died on 1969

Medical Eponyms

Gerstmann syndrome

autotopagnosia; finger agnosia

Gerstmann syndrome 2

A paranoid psychosis with auditory hallucinations in patients with general paresis of the insane, as a result of malarial therapy, described by Gerstmann in 1924.

Major Publications

• Gerstmann J. Fingeragnosie: Eine umschriebene Störung der Orientierung am eigenen Körper. Wiener klinische Wochenschrift 1924; 37: 1010–1012 [Gerstmann syndrome 2]
• Gerstmann J. Über ein noch nicht beschriebenes Reflexphänomen bei einer Erkrankung des zerebellaren Systems. Wiener medicinische Wochenschrift 1928; 78: 906–908
• Gerstmann J. Zur Symptomatologie der Hirnlasionen im Ubergangsgebiet der unteren Parietal-und mittleren Occipitalwindung. (Das Syndrom: Fingeragnosie, Rechts-Links-Storung, Agraphie, Akalkulie). Nerveniarzt 1930; 3: 691-5.

References

Biography

• Triarhou LC. Josef Gerstmann (1887-1969). J Neurol. 2008 Apr;255(4):614-5. 
• Triarhou LC. Josef Gerstmann (1887–1969). Brain masters of Vienna

Eponymous terms

Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease

• Liberski PP. Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2012;724:128-37. 
• Zeidman LA, Ziller MG, Shevell M. Gerstmann, Sträussler, and Scheinker: the persecution of the men behind the syndrome. Neurology. 2014 Jul 15;83(3):272-7.

Gerstmann syndrome

• Zeidman LA, Ziller MG, Shevell M. “With a smile through tears”: the uprooted career of the man behind Gerstmann syndrome. J Hist Neurosci. 2015;24(2):148-72.
• Rusconi E. Gerstmann syndrome: historic and current perspectives. Handb Clin Neurol. 2018;151:395-411.
• Rusconi E, Cubelli R. The making of a syndrome: The English translation of Gerstmann’s first report. Cortex. 2019 Aug;117:277-283

---