Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T23:30:35.474Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The early development of Kraepelin's ideas on classification: a conceptual history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

G. E. Berrios  and
R. Hauser
G. E. Berrios*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
R. Hauser
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr G. E. Berrios, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital (Level 4), Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Psychiatry still lives in a Kraepelinian world and scholarship on the work of Kraepelin has consequently been unhistorical. Selective exegesis of the various editions of his textbook has led to a rigid view of his contribution. However, Kraepelin lived and wrote during an important period of European intellectual history and his work can only be understood against this background. This paper analyses the development of his views in terms of the ‘Research Programme’ he planned early in his life and whose objective was the creation of a stable description and classification of the psychoses. This Kraepelin eventually achieved by longitudinally studying patient cohorts in terms of methodological criteria such as illness course and incurability. In the event, this methodology allowed him to identify by correlation ‘clinical pictures’ that both represented the ‘essence’ of the disease and provided a taxonomic criterion. Although avowedly atheoretical, Kraepelin thus managed to construct (influenced by Kahlbaum and Wundt) an empirical support for his Kantian categorization of the psychoses. A discussion of the cultural variables that moulded these ideas is included.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , November 1988 , pp. 813 - 821
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, F. G. & Selesnick, S. T. (1966). The History of Psychiatry. Harper and Row: New York.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1878). Esthonia. in Encyclopaedia Britannica. Ninth edition Vol. VIII pp. 561–563. Adam and Charles Black: Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Avenarius, R. (1979). Emil Kraepelin, seine Persönlichkeit und seine Konzeption. In Psychopathohgie als Grundlagenwissenschaft (ed. Janzank, W.), pp. 62–73. Enke: Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Berrios, G. E. (1985). Positive and negative symptoms and Jackson. Archives of General Psychiatry 42, 95–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berrios, G. E. (1987 a). Dementia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: a conceptual history. Psychological Medicine 17, 829–837.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berrios, G. E. (1987 b). Outcome prediction and treatment response in schizophrenia. Practical Reviews in Psychiatry 2, 7–9.Google Scholar
Berrios, G. E. (1987 c). Historical aspects of psychoses: nineteenthcentury issues. British Medical Bulletin 43, 484–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berrios, G. E. (1988). Historical background to abnormal psychology. In Textbook of Abnormal Psychology (ed Miller, E. and Cooper, P.), Churchill Livingstone: Edinburgh. (In the press.)Google Scholar
Blashfield, R. K. (1982). Feighner et al., invisible colleges, and the Matthew effect. Schizophrenia Bulletin 9, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blashfield, R. K. (1984). The Classification of Psychopathology. Neo-Kraepelinian and Quantitative Approaches. Plenum Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braceland, F. J. (1956). Kraepelin, his system and his influence. American Journal of Psychiatry 113, 871–874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruch, H. (1969). One hundred years of psychiatry (Kraepelin), fifty years later. Archives of General Psychiatry 21, 257–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, G. A. (1978). Germany 1866–1945. Clarendon Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Daraszkiewicz, L. (1892). Über Hebephrenie, insbesondere deren schwere Form. Dissertation, Laakmans, Dorpat.Google Scholar
Decker, H. A. (1977). Freud in Germany. International Universities Press: New York.Google Scholar
Del Pistoia, L. (1971). Le problème de la temporalité dans la psychiatrie française classique. L'Evolution Psychiatrique 36, 445–474.Google Scholar
Deny, G. & Roy, P. (1903). La Démence Précoce. Baillière et fils: Paris.Google Scholar
Dörner, K. (1969). Bürger und Irre. Europäische Verlagsanstalt: Frankfurt am Main.Google Scholar
Ellenberger, H. F. (1970). The Discovery of the Unconscious. The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. Allen Lane: London.Google Scholar
Esquirol, E. (1838). Des Maladies Mentales. Vols. 1 and 2. Baillière: Paris.Google Scholar
Fish, F. (1967). Recent developments in schizophrenia: a review. British Journal of Psychiatry 113, 1321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fish, F. (1968). Kraepelin's nosology. British Journal of Psychiatry 114, 356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grayson, D. A. (1987). Can categorical and dimensional views of psychiatric illness be distinguished? British Journal of Psychiatry 151, 355–361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Havens, L. L. (1956). Emil Kraepelin. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 141, 16–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoenig, J. (1968). Kraepelin and his approach to nosology. British Journal of Psychiatry 114, 125–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoenig, J. (1983). The concept of schizophrenia: Kraepelin, Bleuler Schneider. British Journal of Psychiatry 142, 547–556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoff, P. (1985). Zum Krankheitsbegriff bei Emil Kraepelin. Nenenarzt 56, 508–513.Google ScholarPubMed
Janzarik, W. (1979). 100 Jahre Heidelberger Psychiatrie. In Psycho-pathologie als Grundlagenwissenschaft (ed Janzarik, W.), pp. 1–18. Enke: Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Jaspers, K. (1963). General Psychopathology (translated by Hoenig, J. and Hamilton, M.). Manchester University Press: Manchester.Google Scholar
Kahlbaum, K. (1863). Die Gruppirung der Psychischen Krank-heiten und die Eintheilung der Seelenslörungen. A. W. Kafemann: Danzig.Google Scholar
Kahn, E. (1956). Emil Kraepelin. American Journal of Psychiatry 113, 289–294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, D. B. (1970). A History of Scientific Psychology. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Kolle, K. (1957). Kraepelin und Freud. Beitrag zur Neuren Geschichte der Psychiatrie. Georg Thieme: Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1887). Die Richlungen der Psychiatrischen Forschung. Vortrag, gehalten bei der Übernahme des Lehramtes an der Kaiserlichen Universität Dorpal. Vogel: Leipzig.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1893). Lehrhuch der Psychiatrie. 4. Auflage. Abel Meixner: Leipzig.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1894). Die Abgrenzung der Paranoia. Allgemeine Zeilschrift für Psychialrie 50, 1080–1081.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1896 a). Über Remissionen bei Katatonie. Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie 52, 1126–1127.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1896 b). Lehrhuch der Psychiatrie. 5. Auflage. Barth: Leipzig.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1897). Ziele und Wege der klinischen Psychiatrie. Allgemeine Zeilschrift für Psychiatrie 53, 840–848.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1907). Textbook of Psychiatry (7th edition), translated by Diefendorf, A. R. (abstracted). Macmillan: London.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1918). Hundert Jahre Psychiatrie. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte menschlicher Gesittung. Zeitschrift der Neurologie 38, 161–275.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1919). Die Erforschung psychischer Krankheitsformen. Zeilschrift für die gesammte Neurologie und Psychiatrie 51, 224–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1920). Die Erscheinungsformen des Irreseins. Zeitschrift für die gesammte Neurologie und Psychiatrie 62, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1921). Bismarcks Persönlichkeit. Ungedruckte persönliche Erinnerungen. Süddetischen Monatshefte 19, 105–122.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1983). Lebenserinnerungen. Springer: Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, J. (1926). Emil Kraepelin. Nature wissenschaften 14, 1255–1256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanteri-Laura, G. (1972). La chronicité dans la psychiatrie moderne françaisc. Annales (Paris) no. 3, 548–568.Google Scholar
Lanteri-Laura, G. (1986). Acuilé et pathologie mentale. L'Evolution Psychiatrique 51, 403–416.Google Scholar
Leader (1968). Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926): psychiatric nosographer. Journal of the American Medical Association 203. 978–979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leary, D. E. (1978). The philosophical development of the conception of psychology in Germany, 1780–1850. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences 14, 113–121.Google Scholar
López-Piñero, J M. (1983). Historical Origins of the Concept of Neurosis. Translated by Berrios, D.. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mairet, A. & Margot, J. (1920). La Démence Précoce Dubois: Paris.Google Scholar
Marandon de Montyel, E. (1905). Les formes de la démence précoce. Annales Médico-Psychologiques 2, 246–260.Google Scholar
Mayer, W. (1956) Emil Kraepelin. American Journal of Psychotherapy 10, 273–276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mischel, T. (1970). Wundt and the conceptual foundations of psychology. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 31, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mongeri, L. (1905). Les formes de la démence précoce. Annales Médico-Psychologiques 2, 261–265.Google Scholar
Monod, G. (1905). Les Formes Frustrées de la Démence Précoce. Rousset: Paris.Google Scholar
Parant, V. (1905). D'une prétendue entité morbide dite démence précoce. Annales Médico-Psychologiques 1, 229–241.Google Scholar
Pauly, P. J. (1983). The political structure of the brain: cerebral localization on Bismarckian Germany. International Journal of Neuroscience 21, 145–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pichot, P. (1982). The diagnosis and classification of mental disorders in French-speaking countries: background, current view and comparisons with other nomenclatures. Psychological Medicine 12, 475–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pichot, P. (1984). A Century of Psychiatry. Dacosta: Paris.Google Scholar
Rennert, H. (1968). Wilhelm Griesinger und die Einheitpsychose. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt Universität 17, 15–16.Google Scholar
Rieder, R. O. (1974). The origins of our confusion about schizophrenia. Psychiatry 37, 197–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaillant, G. E. (1964). An historical review of the remitting schizophrenias. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 138, 48–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walk, A. (1968). What Kraepelin really said British Journal of Psychiatry 114, 643–644.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wender, P. H. (1963). Dementia Praecox: the development of the concept. American Journal of Psychiatry 119, 1143–1151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wirth, W. (1927). Emil Kraepelin zum Gedächtnis. Archiv gesammte Psychologie 58, 1–32.Google Scholar
Zilboorg, G. (1941). A History of Medical Psychology. Norton: New York.Google Scholar
Zubin, J., Oppenheimer, G. & Neugebauer, G. (1985). Degeneration theory and the stigma of schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry 20, 1145–1148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zubin, J. (1987). Foreword. In Emil Kraepelin Memoirs. Springer: Berlin.Google Scholar