Edmund Jacobson (* August 22, 1888 in Chicago; † January 1983 in Chicago) was a US-American physician in internal medicine and psychiatry and a physiologist. He was the founder of the Progressive Muscle Relaxation and of Biofeedback. August 22 is the 234th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (235th in leap years), with 131 days remaining. ... 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook Incorporated March 4, 1837 Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area    - City 606. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook Incorporated March 4, 1837 Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area    - City 606. ... Progressive relaxation is a technique of stress management developed by the American physician Edmund Jacobson in the early 1920s. ... Biofeedback mechanism. ...

He was the son of Morris Jacobson, a realtor in Chicago, born in Germany, and his wife Fannie.

After a B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1908, Jacobson received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University and then returned to Chicago as an assistant in physiology. Here he obtained his M.D. degree in 1915. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

He began his physiological investigations at Harvard University in 1908. In 1921, he introduced the application of psychological principles to medical practice which was later called psychosomatic medicine. Employing low microvoltage apparatus, Jacobson also made the first accurate electrical measurement of muscular tonus, nerve impulses and mental activities in neuromuscular sites in living men. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A psychosomatic illness is one with physical manifestations and supposed psychological cause, often diagnosed when any known or identifiable physical cause was excluded by medical examination. ... Main Entry: neu·ro·mus·cu·lar Pronunciation: nur-O-m&s-ky&-l&r, nyur- of or relating to nerves and muscles; especially : jointly involving nervous and muscular elements <a neuromuscular junction> ...

Jacobson was able to prove the connexion between excessive muscular tension and different disorders of body and psyche. He found out that tension and exertion was always accompanied by a shortening of the muscular fibres, that the reduction of the muscular tonus decreased the activity of the central nervous system, that relaxation was the contrary of states of excitement and well suited for a general remedy and prophylaxis against psychosomatic disorders. A diagram showing the CNS: 1. ... The word relaxation can mean the following: The opposite of stress or tension; the aim of recreation and leisure activities. ... Prophylaxis refers to any medical or public health procedure whose purpose is to prevent, rather than treat or cure, disease. ... A psychosomatic illness is one with physical manifestations and supposed psychological cause, often diagnosed when any known or identifiable physical cause was excluded by medical examination. ...

In 1929, after twenty years of research, Jacobson began to publish his results in the book "Progressive Relaxation" (Univ. of Chicago Press). His major work, "You must relax", addressing the general public, came out in 1934.

Jacobson deepened his investigations from 1936 through 1960 at the Laboratory for Clinical Physiology in Chicago which he directed, and he continued his investigations of simultaneous chemical and electronic recordings in man in health until the 1970's. Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook Incorporated March 4, 1837 Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area    - City 606. ...