| At the time Kraepelin entered the medical scene in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the classification of mental disorders was in a slate of confusion. His interest in psychiatry began when he was still in medical school. For a time he was associated with Wilhelm Wundt at the University of Leipzig. At that time Wundt was concerned with the new psychology and was experimenting with sensory functions and the analysis of states of consciousness. It was against this background of scientific investigation that Kraepelin approached the problem of mental disorders. He believed that one should take a scientific approach to mental disorders since they were predetermined. It seemed to him that a person who was mentally disturbed might naturally recover or might not. Through careful observation of many patients and statistical tabulation of symptoms, he came to the conclusion that there were two major mental disorders: dementia praecox and the manic-depressive psychosis. He further divided these disorders into various subtypes: dementia praecox could be subdivided into the hebephrenic. catatonic, and paranoid, while the manic-depressive psychosis had many more subdivisions. depending on the regularity or irregularity of the cycles of mania and
depression. As a result, he became known as the "great classifier" of mental
disorders. In 1883 he published the first edition of his Clinical psychiatry: the ninth edition appeared in 1927, the year after his
death. Kraepelin's classifications were the culmination of efforts of various psychiatrists both in France and Germany for over a
generation. Through his efforts the study, diagnosis, and prognosis of outcome of menial disorders became a legitimate branch of
medicine. By and large. Kraepelin considered the cause of the disorders to be predetermined and basically of a biological nature. Physiological factors and malfunctions of various body organs seemed to the important factors, rather than the psychological
causes proposed by many from the French schools and by Sigmund Freud. |
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