Gabriel Langfeldt
| Gabriel Langfeldt | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
23 December 1895 Kristiansand, Norway |
| Died | 28 October 1983 (aged 87) Oslo, Norway |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Occupation | Psychiatrist |
Gabriel Langfeldt (23 December 1895 – 28 October 1983) was a Norwegian psychiatrist. He was a professor at the University of Oslo from 1940 to 1965. His publications centered on schizophrenia and forensic medicine. He was involved as an expert during the trial against Hamsun, and wrote a book about Quisling.
Born in Kristiansand to Carl Gerhard Magnus Langfeldt, a bank director, and his wife Gudrun Amalie Leversen, Langfeldt obtained examen artium at Kristiansand Cathedral School and became Candidate of Medicine at the University of Oslo in 1920. He earned his degree in medicine in 1926 with a thesis on the endocrine glands and autonomic nervous system in relation to schizophrenia.
After working as a district physician and hospital physician, Langfeldt became assistant physician at Neevengården Hospital in Bergen in 1923, and worked there until 1929 when he became a psychiatrist with the police. As a police psychiatrist, he started the first observation department for psychiatric patients in an effort to avoid having to put them in prison while they were waiting for an ordinary hospital place.
In 1935, he started working at the psychiatric clinic of the University of Oslo. He became leader of the clinic in 1940, appointed by the German-led occupation administration and confirmed by the legitimate Norwegian government in 1945.
He published further studies on schizophrenia in 1937 and 1939, in which he developed a distinction between "typical schizophrenia" and "schizophreniform psychoses". While the former had a poor prognosis, he believed that the latter could include affective disorders and delusions but lacked several of the typical schizophrenic symptoms. and therefore had a much better prognosis. This theory attracted international attention. Langfeldt was a keynote speaker at the 2nd International Congress for Psychiatry held in Zürich in 1958 devoted to knowledge on "groups of schizophrenia". He travelled to Vienna to study the insulin shock therapy against schizophrenia developed by Manfred Sakel, but was skeptical of the method.
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