Friedrich S. Rothschild

Friedrich Salomon Rothschild (December 17, 1899, Giessen – March 6, 1995, Israel) was a Jewish psychiatrist and semiotician. He has coined the term biosemiotic in his work of 1962.

He worked in Heidelberg (from 1925 to 1928) with psychotherapist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (1889–1957) and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm (1900–1980), and in Frankfurt (from 1928 to 1933) with Kurt Goldstein (1878–1965). He was influenced by the philosophy of Ludwig Klages (1872–1956) with whom he corresponded.

In 1935, he published the book “Symbolik des Hirnbaus: Erscheinungswissenschaftliche Untersuchung über den Bau und die Funktionen des Zentralnervensystems der Wirbeltiere und des Menschen”. He has developed the communicative approach in biology.