Nikolai Vladimirovich Dahl was a
RussianThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
. He graduated from the
Moscow UniversityM. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , for a time the Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be the oldest university in Russia and the tallest educational building in the world...
in 1887, and was a student in France of famous Dr
CharcotJean-Martin Charcot was a French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He is known as "the founder of modern neurology" and is "associated with at least 15 medical eponyms", including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis .His work greatly influenced the...
who initiated a therapy by hypnotizing his patients. Dahl had a private practice in Moscow. His speciality was in the fields of
neurologyNeurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
,
psychiatryPsychiatry is a medical specialty officially devoted to the treatment and study of mental disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808....
and
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
. Dahl was interested in music and he was a competent amateur cellist.
Dahl is best known for treating the composer
Sergei RachmaninoffSergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music...
.
Nikolai Vladimirovich Dahl was a
RussianThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
. He graduated from the
Moscow UniversityM. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , for a time the Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be the oldest university in Russia and the tallest educational building in the world...
in 1887, and was a student in France of famous Dr
CharcotJean-Martin Charcot was a French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He is known as "the founder of modern neurology" and is "associated with at least 15 medical eponyms", including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis .His work greatly influenced the...
who initiated a therapy by hypnotizing his patients. Dahl had a private practice in Moscow. His speciality was in the fields of
neurologyNeurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
,
psychiatryPsychiatry is a medical specialty officially devoted to the treatment and study of mental disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808....
and
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
. Dahl was interested in music and he was a competent amateur cellist.
Dahl is best known for treating the composer
Sergei RachmaninoffSergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music...
. Rachmaninoff had a
nervous breakdownMental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
because of poor critical reviews of his
Symphony No. 1Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote his Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 at Ivanovka, an estate near Tambov, Russia, between January and October 1895...
and went into a
creative blockWriter's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand...
. In January 1900 Dahl took Rachmaninoff into a treatment which lasted daily for more than three months, using
hypnotherapyHypnotherapy is therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.The word "hypnosis" is an abbreviation of James Braid's term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system"....
and
psychotherapyPsychotherapy or personal counseling with a psychotherapist, is an intentional interpersonal relationship used by trained psychotherapists to aid a client or patient in problems of living.It aims to increase the individual's sense of their own well-being...
. Dahl's treatment, helped by support from Rachmaninoff's own family and friends, cured the composer, who dedicated his
Piano Concerto No. 2The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on 2 December 1900...
(1901) to Dahl.
Dr. Dahl is said to have emigrated from Russia in 1925 and have died in 1939 in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
.
In program booklets from
Oslo Philharmonic OrchestraThe Oslo-Filharmonien is a symphony orchestra based in Oslo, Norway. The orchestra was founded in 1919, and has since 1977 had its home in the Oslo Concert Hall...
in 1999 and 2001 Dahl is referred to as being
NorwegianNorwegians are a Northern European ethnic group found mostly in Norway and other Scandinavian countries, as well as many other countries in diaspora...
. This assertion was later disclaimed in an article in the
Journal of the Norwegian Medical AssociationThe Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association is a medical journal published by the Norwegian Medical Association ....
.
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