Hypermetamorphosis : Eine Hinterlassenschaft des Breslauer Psychiaters Heinrich Neumann

The term "hypermetamorphosis"was originally coined in 1859 by an almost forgotten psychiatrist from Breslau, now Wroclaw in Poland, HeinrichWilhelm Neumann.The 1906 textbook of his assistant Wernicke transmitted the concept to Kluver and Bucy, who understood it as the "excessive tendency to take notice of and to attend and react to every visual stimulus" in their syndrome description of bitemporal lobectomy in the monkey (1937-1939). Hypermetamorphosis so far has not been properly operationalized, and the concept appears outdated. Components such as,,compulsive manipulation",,,magnet reaction/groping",,,compulsive grasping/grasp reflex",,,utilization behavlor", and,,ewironmental dependency syndrome"can be better delineated and are commonly seen in frontal rather than temporal lesions. They may occur with frontal contusion, anterior cerebral artery infarction,in diseases of the Pick complex, and basal ganglia neurodegeneration.