Kurt Mendel

Kurt Mendel (January 27, 1874 - 1946) was a German neurologist who was a native of Berlin, of Jewish origins.

[1] In 1897 he received his doctorate from Kiel, and in 1899 went to work at the policlinic of Emanuel Mendel (1839-1907) in Berlin.

With Russian neurophysiologist Vladimir Bekhterev (1857-1927), the eponymous Mendel-Bekhterev reflex is named, which is flexion of the toes caused by percussion of the upper surface of the foot, a sign of lesions of the pyramidal tract.

He mentioned that Freud's psychoanalytical teachings offered a valuable perspective, however he believed that they contained excessive exaggeration and fantasy.

Mendel was an outspoken opponent of Hermann Oppenheim (1858-1919), regarding the latter's theory of psychic changes perpetrated by organic disturbances within the brain due to psychological trauma.