Emil Kraepelin: biography of this German psychiatrist.

We review the life and work of a scientist who greatly influenced Sigmund Freud.

The name Emil Kraepelin is well known by most psychologists and psychiatrists in the world as the founder of modern psychiatry. psychologists and psychiatrists of the world as the founder of modern psychiatry.

Among his main contributions we find that he is responsible for having generated a system of classification of mental illnesses based on the clinical manifestation of subjects with mental problems as they exist today (being a pioneer in developing a nosology in this regard) and the distinction between disorders such as dementia praecox (later called schizophrenia by Bleuler) and manic-depressive psychosis (current bipolar disorder).

In this article we will present a brief biography of this important psychiatrist.

Biography of Emil Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin was born on February 15, 1856 in Neustrelitz, Germany.. Son of Emilie Kraepelin and Karl Kraepelin, the latter a professor. Throughout his life he acquired a certain taste for botany (probably due to the influence of one of his brothers, a biologist) and a great fondness for music, literature and poetry.

Formation

Kraepelin felt from the beginning a great interest in the world of medicine and biology, beginning in 1875 to study medicine at the University of Wurzburg. Already during his studies he became very interested in the field of psychiatry and psychology.He became particularly interested in this field after a stay in Wilhelm Wundt's experimental laboratory in Lepizig, where he attended a course with the father of scientific psychology and learned the psychophysical methods he used. He would later work as Von Rinecker's assistant at the psychiatric hospital of the aforementioned university.

He received his doctorate in 1878, with a thesis based on the effect of diseases on the appearance of mental disorders in which he also worked on aspects such as the role of psychology in psychiatry.

Post-university training

Bernhard von Gudden, who was to become chairman of his thesis evaluation board, recruited him as his assistant at the Munich psychiatric hospital, working on aspects of neuroanatomy for four years.

He then went on to study neuropathology in 1882 together with Flechsig, again in Leipzig, to later work as a volunteer with Erb and Wundt in the department of nervous diseases and in Wundt's experimental laboratory, studying especially aspects linked to clinical practice, although he also carried out various investigations on substance abuse or fatigue.

Elaboration of the Treatise on Psychiatry

It would be in these years when Wundt would suggest him to elaborate a table of the different mental disorders. However, Kraepelin would go much further, Kraepelin would go much further than expected, formulating his own classificatory system based on the clinical manifestation of mental problems. of mental problems. In 1883 the Treatise on Psychiatry was born, which would be the basis for the elaboration of later diagnostic classifications (including the latest editions of the DSM). It was at this important moment that modern psychiatric nosology emerged.

This classification would be made and would take into account not only on the basis of clinical manifestations but also their etiology, dividing mental disorders into endogenous and exogenous. Kraepelin considered that the causes of psychiatric disorders were mainly biological.

In addition to this important publication, during the same year he qualified in the department of medicine at the University of Leipzig and later worked again with Gudden at the Munich psychiatric hospital.

In 1886 he was appointed professor at the University of Dorpat, Estonia, where he succeeded Emminghaus. He worked in this position while improving his treatise until disagreements with the Tsar caused him to leave his post in 1890. He left for Heidelberg, where he would meet and work with Alois Alzheimer, with whom he would eventually contribute to the study of what is now known as Alzheimer's disease. He would also study aspects such as sleep and memory.

Dementia praecox and manic-depressive psychosis

Although he had already published several revisions of his Treatise on Psychiatry, it was not until the sixth edition, published in 1899, that he would elaborate another of his major contributions: the creation and distinction of the concepts of dementia praecox (current schizophrenia, highlighting the paranoid, hebephrenic and catatonic subtypes) and manic-depressive psychosis (current bipolar disorder), establishing some of its characteristic symptoms through longitudinal studies.

Back to Munich

Together with Alzheimer, in 1903 he would return to Munich, where he would be appointed Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Munich and would participate in founding and directing the Königlische Psychiatrische Klinik. His research at this time focused on the study of mental disorders in different cultures, which would cause him to travel often to different countries.

During this period he also carried out research on alcohol, which led him to become a teetotaler and even to produce his own non-alcoholic drink, a kind of lemonade called "Kraepelinsekt". He tried to promote the creation of institutions for alcoholics, but his proposal was not supported.

The aforementioned clinic would become the German Institute for Psychiatric Research between 1917 and 1918.The arrival of World War I practically bankrupted the company (only thanks to the help of the Rockefeller Foundation was it prevented from closing).

Death and legacy

The following years were spent working at the Institute and on the by then ninth edition of the Treatise on Psychiatry. Emil Kraepelin died on October 7, 1926 in the city of Munich, at the age of seventy.

Kraepelin's legacy is extensive: he was the first author to create a psychiatric nosology and a way of classifying mental illnesses that has remained in use to this day. that has continued to be used to this day. Although his diagnostic labels are no longer commonly used, they have given way to other designations and research regarding various disorders.

Bibliographical references:

• Laín, P. (1975), Historia Universal de la Medicina, Barcelona, Salvat, vol. 7, pp. 289-294.
• Engstrom, E.J. (1991). Emil Kraepelin. Psychiatry and Public Affairs in Wilhelmine Germany. History of Psychiatry, vol. 2; 111-132.