Paul Ferdinand Schilder

Paul Ferdinand Schilder (February 15, 1886, Vienna – December 7, 1940, New York City) was an Austrian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher and author of numerous scientific publications. He was a pupil of Sigmund Freud. Schilder made considerable contributions towards the inclusion of psychoanalytic theory in psychiatry, and he is considered one of the founding fathers of group psychotherapy. Schilder's lasting contribution to psychological and medical thinking is his concept of the body image.

Life and work

Schilder was the son of a Jewish silk merchant. He received his doctorate in medicine in 1909 from the University of Vienna and, as a result of his work Self-Esteem and Personality, received his doctorate of philosophy in 1917. Between the years of 1912 and 1914 he worked as a doctor's assistant as the psychiatric clinic in Leipzig. He also served in various hospitals during the first world war. In 1918 he came to the psychiatric clinic in Vienna, and in 1920 began working on a professorship in neurology and psychiatry.