Emil Kraepelin: biography of this German psychiatrist

The name of Emil Kraepelin is highly known by most 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 classification system of mental illnesses based on the clinical manifestation of the subjects with mental problems such as those that exist today (being a pioneer in developing a nosology in this regard) and the distinction between disorders such as early dementia (later named schizophrenia by Bleuler) and manic-depressive psychosis (current Bipolar disorder).

In this article we are going to 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 professor. Throughout his life he acquired a certain taste for botany (probably under the influence of one of his brothers, a biologist) and a great love for music, literature and poetry.

Training

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 greatly interested in the field of psychiatry and psychology., focusing on that area especially after a stay in the experimental laboratory of Wilhelm Wundt in Lepizig, taking a course with the father of scientific psychology and learning the psychophysical methods used by him. Later he would work as Von Rinecker's assistant in 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

The one who would be president of his thesis evaluation tribunal, Bernhard von Gudden, would recruit him as his assistant at the Munich psychiatric hospital, working on aspects related to neuroanatomy during four years.

After that he would go on to study neuropathology in 1882 together with Flechsig, again in Leipzig, to later work as volunteer with Erb and Wundt in the department of nervous diseases and in Wundt's experimental laboratory, studying especially aspects related to clinical practice despite the fact that he also carried out different investigations on the consumption of substances or fatigue.

Elaboration of the Treaty of Psychiatry

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

This classification would be carried out and would take into account not only the clinical manifestations but also their etiology, dividing mental disorders into endogenous and exogenous. Kraepelin considered the causes of psychiatric disorders to be primarily biological.

In addition to this important publication, during that same year he was qualified in the department of medicine of the University of Leipzig later to work again next to Gudden in the psychiatric of Munich.

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 the post in 1890. He left for Heidelberg, where he would meet and work alongside Alois Alzheimer, with whom he would eventually contribute to the study of what is now known as Alzheimer disease. He would also study aspects such as sleep and memory.

Precocious dementia and manic-depressive psychosis

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

Return 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.

At this time he would also carry out research on alcohol, which would cause him to end up becoming teetotaler and even to make his own non-alcoholic drink, a kind of lemonade named "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, but the arrival of World War I practically led to bankruptcy (only thanks to the help of the Rockefeller Foundation was it prevented from closing it).

Death and legacy

The following years were spent working at the Institute and on the already 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 vast: he is the first author to create a psychiatric nosology and a way to classify mental illnesses that has continued to be used to this day. Although their diagnostic labels are no longer commonly used, they have given way to other names and research regarding various disorders.

Bibliographic references:

• Laín, P. (1975), Universal History of Medicine, 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.