The scientific path of Jakub Frostig in the light of his correspondence with the leading representatives of world psychiatry - from psychoanalysis and phenomenological approach to biological psychiatry. Part 2. Towards biological psychiatry.

Filip Marcinowski,Tadeusz Nasierowski

doi:10.12740/pp/119862

Abstract

In the second part of the article devoted to Jakub Frostig (1896-1959), his research from the 1930s on insulin coma treatment is presented in a broader context. Frostig began his research in the psychiatric hospital Zofiówka in Otwock and continued after his emigration to the United States. Thanks to new sources, we managed to determine the reasons underlying Frostig's departure from Poland. At the end of the 1930s, the issue of emigration became a necessity for him, saving his life and his family. Frostig was well aware of the political atmosphere at the time and the threats that followed. The inability to make a scientific career in Poland was the first impulse to look for a job abroad. After taking over the post of director of Zofiówka in 1933, this factor ceased to be decisive. The feeling of danger born on the wave of European anti-Semitism, especially in Germany, after Hitler came to power, came to the fore. Efforts to obtain awork permit in Switzerland and Australia proved unsuccessful. Eventually, just before the outbreak of World War II, Frostig managed to emigrate to the USA, where he concentrated on popularizing the treatment of psychiatric disorders with insulin comas in the local psychiatric environment. He did not accomplish a scientific career in the USA as he intended. His life story came full circle, and just as in the first years of his professional career in Lviv, he was forced to switch to a private practice. Despite the difficulties mentioned above, Frostig played a significant role in Polish psychiatry and greatly contributed to its development.

Highlights

The publication of a two-volume psychiatry textbook in 1933 established Frostig’s position in the Polish psychiatric community and probably facilitated winning theFilip Marcinowski, Tadeusz Nasierowski competition for the position of head of the Hospital for Nervous and Mental Disorders dedicated to Jewish patients in Otwock, bearing the common name Zofiówka, released a year earlier by Rafał Becker (1891-1940) [1].So Frostig wrote to Binswanger about the offer he received1: As you know, until now I was a neurologist in Lviv and I did not have neither an access to literature nor any research material at my disposal
Summary In the second part of the article devoted to Jakub Frostig (1896–1959), his research from the 1930s on insulin coma treatment is presented in a broader context
Frostig began his research in the psychiatric hospital Zofiówka in Otwock and continued after his emigration to the United States

Summary

Introduction

The publication of a two-volume psychiatry textbook in 1933 established Frostig’s position in the Polish psychiatric community and probably facilitated winning the. The colourful and somewhat exalted description of Australian psychiatrist Reginald Ellery relates to the experience of his scientific trip around Europe in 1936: Each of these countries was using insulin as a stepping stone to further treatment, though in none was it so well organised as at Otwock, in Poland, under Dr Jacob Frostig, whose results were among the best this author had encountered. Doubtless this was to some extent due to his enthusiasm for the treatment. Some phrases were disturbingly silly, such as the phrase “reduction in the regulation of supply” or the claim that an operating but disconnected engine is in a “potential” energy state [...] I do not know if the typesetter will keep up in these countless revisions [9]

Work efforts in Switzerland

An unsuccessful attempt to emigrate to Australia

Emigration to the United States