Johann Bernhard Aloys von Gudden was a visionary psychiatrist and neuroanatomist. He dedicated himself to neurobiology and was far more than a consulting psychiatrist to the Bavarian royal family. Some well-known scientists such as Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926), Franz Nissl (1860–1919), Auguste-Henri Forel (1848–1931) and Sigbert Josef Maria Ganser (1853–1931) studied under his supervision.

von Gudden was born in Kleve, in lower Rhineland near the Dutch frontier, on 7 June 1824. He was the third of seven sons of Johannes Gudden, a landed proprietor, owner of a brewery and member of the town council. In 1843, he began his studies in philosophy and medicine at the university in Bonn. For his doctoral dissertation, von Gudden studied torsional eye movement under the supervision of Alfred Volkman (1800–77) at Halle. He received his medical degree in 1848 and in the same year passed with distinction the state medical examination in Berlin. Thereafter, he obtained a position at the Siegburg asylum as an assistant under the supervision of Karl Wigand Maximilian …