Comprehension of a scientifically based ethic in the works of Eugen Bleuler

The name Eugen Bleuler is almost exclusively linked with matters concerning the nosology of schizophrenia, general psychopathology, and the relationsh ip of clinical psychiatry with psychoanalysis. His bibliography lists vario us works dealing with contemporary themes about legislation, the fight agai nst alcoholism,and, for the most part from later years, with themes about g eneral psychology. In this article, material from Bleuler's texts are revie wed, including some which have been inaccessible up to now, which either al low interpretative conclusions on ethical grounds or have this explicitly a s a topic. In particular,the analysis focuses on Bleuler's work "The Scient ific Fundamentals of Ethics", published in 1939. Written in a time widely v iewed as disorientated, the author coherently and systemically comments on the issue of a 'new' ethic. The antireligious and antiphilosophical positio ns already demonstrable in some of his earlier works will be shown. Accordi ng to his conception of a scientifically based ethic, the idea of social su itability is of utmost importance and also recognisable in the animal world as a general principle of nature. Bleuler perceives the ethical 'instinct' as inherent; its absence characterises the image of an 'moral idiot', whic h was already a theme in his earlier works. His statements about matters co ncerning euthanasia are presented and,furthermore, it will be attempted to construct from his texts an underlying global view. Concerning these ethica l issues, it also can be shown once more that the elderly Bleuler was hardl y influenced by psychoanalytical perspectives.