Skip to main content
Log in

The work of Emil Kraepelin and his research group in München

  • HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
  • Published:
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Emil Kraepelin is well known due to his development of the psychiatric classification. The ICD-10 and DSM-IV classification is based on the dichotomy of endogenous psychoses into affective psychoses and schizophrenia as early as 1899. Moreover, beside his classification system he put enormous impact on the development of psychiatry to an empirical field of science. The research activities of Kraepelin and his coworkers show that he was not only the most active researcher in the field of psychiatry in his time but also that his research activities included a lot of clinical and experimental work in different disciplines of psychiatry, including psychology, pharmacology and natural sciences as ‘Hilfswissenschaften’. Due to his extraordinary position also in his time he brought together important researchers of this time, in particular after the foundation of a psychiatric research institute. Alois Alzheimer, Franz Nissl, Robert Gaupp, or Korbinian Brodman are only a few of his well known coworkers. Kraepelin tried to bring foreward the empirical knowledge in psychiatry, he did not want to have cessation in psychiatry in general and in the classification of psychiatric disorders in particular. He discussed and partly revisted his view and his theoretical approach in the different editions of his textbook according to the state of his empirical knowledge. This is also true for the dichotomy. More than twenty years after the 6th edition of his textbook, he wrote in an essay ‘Die Erscheinungsformen des Irreseins’ (‘The manifestations of insanity’) regarding the dichotomy: “No experienced diagnostician would deny that cases where it seems impossible to arrive to a clear decision, despite extremely careful observation, are unpleasantly frequent.” and “….therefore, the increasingly obvious impossibility to separate the two respective illnesses satisfactorily should raise the suspicion that our question is wrong”. This contribution shows that Kraepelin himself questioned his dichotomy of dementia praecox and manic depressive insanity, a discussion which is lively still today—more than 80 years later.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Grünthal E (1957) Eugen Kahn – zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet. In: Claus A, Grünthal E, Heimann H et al (eds) Beiträge zur Geschichte der Psychiatrie und Hirnanatomie. S. Karger Verlag, Basel, pp 5–9

    Google Scholar 

  2. Hippius H, Möller HJ, Müller N, Neundorfer-Kohl G (2008) The University Department of Psychiatry in Munich.

  3. Hoff P (1994) Emil Kraepelin und die Psychiatrie als klinische Wissenschaft. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  4. Jürgs M (1999) Alzheimer. List-Verlag, München

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kraepelin E (1988) Lebenserinnerungen. In: Hippius H, Peters G, Ploog D (eds) Springer, Berlin

  6. Kraepelin E (1920) Die Erscheinungsformen des Irreseins. Z Gesamte Neurol Psychiatr 62:1–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kraepelin E Edition Emil Kraepelin. In: Weber MM, Holsboer F, Hoff P, Ploog D, Hippius H (Hrsg) Vol. 1 (2000) Persönliche Selbstzeugnisse, Eds: Burgmair, W., Engstrom, E.J., Weber, M.M. Vol. 2 (2001) Kriminologische und forensische Schriften, Eds: Burgmair, W., Engstrom, E.J., Hoff, P., Weber, M.M. Vol. 3 (2002) Briefe 1 (1868–1886), Eds: Burgmair, W., Engstrom, E.J., Weber, M.M. Vol. 4 (2003) Kraepelin in Dorpat (1886–1891), Eds: Burgmair, W., Engstrom, E.J., Hirschmüller, A., Weber, M.M. Vol. 5 (2004): Kraepelin in Heidelberg (1891–1903), Eds: Burgmair, W., Engstrom, E.J., Weber, M.M. Vol. 6 (2006) Kraepelin in München I (1903–1914), Eds: Burgmair, W., Engstrom, E.J., Hirschmüller, A., Weber, M.M. Belleville Verlag Michael Farin: München

  8. Leonhardt M (2004) Mehrdimensionale Psychaitrie: Robert Gaupp, Ernst Kretschmer und die Tübinger psychaitrische Schule. In: Hippius H (eds) Universtätskolloquien zur Schizophrenie. Vol II, Steinkopff Verlag, Darmstadt

  9. Maurer K, Maurer U (1998) Alzheimer. Piper-Verlage, München

    Google Scholar 

  10. Pokorny AD (1973) Eugen Kahr, 1887–1973. Am J Psychiat 130:7, p. 822

    Google Scholar 

  11. Weber MM (1993) Ernst Rüdin. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Disclosure

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Norbert Müller.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hippius, H., Müller, N. The work of Emil Kraepelin and his research group in München. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosc 258 (Suppl 2), 3–11 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-008-2001-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-008-2001-6

Key words

Navigation