Zurabashvili Avlip

Zurabashvili Avlip [2(15).II.1902, village of Bodbiskhevi, present-day Sighnaghi Municipality – 15.VIII.1994, Tbilisi], psychiatrist and neuromorphologist. A full member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (1955) and of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1960), Doctor of Medical Sciences (1937), Professor (1942), and Honored Scientist of Georgia (1944).

In 1927, he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Tbilisi State University (TSU). Between 1927–31, he worked at the TSU Psychiatric Clinic under the supervision of M. Asatiani, and between 1931–38 at the Psychiatric Clinic of the Military Medical Academy in Leningrad under V. Osipov. During this period, he also worked at the Bekhterev Brain Institute, the Pavlov Institute of Physiology, and the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine.

Between 1938 and 1950, he headed the Department of Morphology at the Georgian Institute of Physiology; from 1938–64, he chaired the Department of Psychiatry at the Tbilisi State Medical Institute; and from 1938–94, he served as the Director of the M. Asatiani Research Institute of Psychiatry.

Zurabashvili's research primarily concerns clinical psychiatry and neuromorphology. He provided novel insights into the architectonics and pathoarchitectonics of synapses, studied the morphological development patterns of the frontal lobe of the human cerebral cortex, and developed an ontogenetic classification of the optic thalami. He also created an original method for associative experimentation and developed principles regarding the importance of personological research in psychoneurology.

In 1955, for his research in synapse architectonics, Zurabashvili was awarded the I. Tarkhnishvili Prize by the Georgian Academy of Sciences, and in 1963, he received the V. Bekhterev Prize from the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences for his theoretical achievements in psychiatry. Zurabashvili was a member of the International Brain Research Organization (1962).

He received numerous state awards and was named an Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi (1983).

Literary works: ფსიქიატრია (სახელმძღვანელო), თბ., 1971; Синапсы и обратимые изменения нервных клеток, 2 изд., Тб., 1958; Вопросы патоархитектоники лучевого поражения, Тб., 1962 (თანაავტ.: Б. Р. Нанеишвили); Актуальные проблемы персонологии и клинической психиатрии, Тб., 1970.

Literature: ავლიპი ზურაბაშვილი. ბიობიბლიოგრაფია, შემდგ. ნ. ბაღათურია, ი. დუდუჩავა, თბ., 1984; Минковский Е., К 70-летию А. Д. Зурабашвили, «ფსიქიატრიის სამეცნ.-კვლ. ინ-ტის შრომები», 1974, ტ. 19–20.