BREUER, JOSEF

born Jan. 15, 1842, Vienna died June 20, 1925, Vienna Austrian physician and physiologist who was acknowledged by Sigmund Freud and others as the principal forerunner of psychoanalysis. Breuer found, in 1880, that he had relieved symptoms of hysteria in a patient, (called Anna O. in his case study), Bertha Pappenheim, after he had induced her to recall unpleasant past experiences under hypnosis. He concluded that neurotic symptoms result from unconscious processes and disappear when these processes become conscious. Breuer described his methods and results to Freud and referred patients to him. With Freud he wrote Studien ber Hysterie (1895), in which Breuer's treatment of hysteria was described. Later disagreement on basic theories of therapy terminated their collaboration. Breuer's earlier work had dealt with the respiratory cycle, and in 1868 he described the HeringBreuer reflex involved in the sensory control of inhalations and exhalations in normal breathing. In 1873 he discovered the sensory function of the semicircular canals in the inner ear and their relation to positional sense or balance. He practiced medicine and was physician to many members of the Viennese medical faculty.