The phenomenon of muscle tension he observed is named after him with the name Kohnstamm's phenomenon. At the beginning of the 20th century, Oskar Kohnstamm founded a sanatorium in Königstein im Taunus which was intended to appeal to a group of intellectually high-quality patients, and which became internationally known.
Life and work
His father was Moritz (Moses) Kohnstamm of Sephardic descent, and his mother was Pauline Wilhelmine Kohnstamm, née St. Goar.
His wife, Eva, daughter of Johannes Gad - one of Kohnstamm's Berlin professors, agreed to have occasionally depressive patients as guests in the house, who then got chores assigned in housekeeping, gardening or minding the children. Gradually, the idea ripened to build a small sanatorium for treating clinical depressions. The house, build in Jugendstil style, opened in 1905 and was expanded in 1912.
Kohnstamm was no follower of Sigmund Freud but worked often with hypnosis.
