Major Appointments
Physician, Preobrazhenskii Mental Hospital, Moscow, Russia
Chair of Psychiatry, Preobrazhenskii Mental Hospital, Moscow, Russia
Superintendent, Psychiatric Clinic, Moscow University, Moscow, Russia
Major Honors and Awards
1890: Founded the Moscow Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists
Landmark Clinical, Scientific, and Professional Contributions
Korsakoff is best known for his work detailing the cognitive and physical effects of chronic alcoholism. His initial contribution to this area was his 1887 doctoral thesis, which found that many alcoholics demonstrated evidence of polyneuritis (e.g., muscular weakness and pain, staggering gait) as well as profound memory impairments and confabulation. Although others (e.g., James Jackson in 1822; Robert Lawson in 1879) had previously described some of these same symptoms, Korsakoff realized the cognitive and physical symptoms were characteristics of a single disease. In fact, Korsakoff initially named the disorder psyc...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References and Readings
Beighton, P., & Beighton, G. (1997). The person behind the syndrome. New York: Springer.
Finger, S. (1994). Origins of neuroscience: A history of explorations into brain function (pp. 357–362). New York: Oxford University Press.
Korsakoff, S. S. (1887). Disturbance of psychic function in alcoholic paralysis and its relation to the disturbance of the psychic sphere in multiple neuritis of non-alcoholic origin. Quoted by M. Victor, R. D. Adams, G. H. Collins (1971) The Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. Oxford: Blackwell.
Korsakoff, S. S. (1889a). Psychic disorder in conjunction with peripheral neuritis (trans: Victor, M., Yakovlev, P. I., 1955) Neurology, 5, 394–406.
Korsakoff, S. S. (1889b). Etude medico-psychologique sur une forme des maladies de la me moire. Revue Philosophie, 20, 501–530.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hampstead, B. (2018). Korsakoff (Korsakov), Sergei Sergeievich (1854–1900). In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_631
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_631
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57110-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences