Kurt Schneider: biography and main contributions

Kurt Schneider is, together with Karl Jaspers, the main representative of the Heidelberg School, an important antecedent of phenomenology and psychopathology of a biologicist nature.

In this article we will analyze the biography and theoretical contributions of Kurt Schneider, particularly those related to schizophrenia, depression and psychopathy.

• Related article: "History of Psychology: authors and main theories"

Kurt Schneider Biography

Kurt Schneider was born in 1887 in the town of Crailsheim, which is currently in Germany but at the time belonged to the independent kingdom of Württemberg. He studied medicine at the universities of Berlin and Tübingen, and in 1912 obtained a doctorate with a thesis on psychopathology at the Korsakoff syndrome (or “psychosis”).

After serving in the army during World War I, Schneider continued to train as a psychopathologist, philosopher, and teacher. In 1922 he was hired as an associate professor at the University of Cologne. In 1931 he became director of the Munich Institute for Psychiatric Research and head of psychiatry at a municipal hospital.

He served with the German army as a high-ranking doctor and psychiatrist in the years of World War II. Later, in 1946, he was appointed head of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Heidelberg, an institution that played a pivotal role in the later developments of academic psychopathology.

Schneider retired from professional activity in 1955; until that time he retained his position as dean at Heidelberg, obtained four years earlier. He died in October 1967 at the age of 80, leaving a legacy to psychology and psychiatry that would have a notable influence.

One of the key points of Schneider's methodology was his particular interest in the analytical description of the subjective experience of patients. In this sense His proposals can be related to the phenomenological method, and must be understood in a broader theoretical context: that of the Heidelberg school of psychiatry.

Heidelberg School of Psychiatry

Kurt Schneider is considered, along with Karl Theodor Jaspers (1883-1969), one of the main theorists of the Heidelberg School of Psychiatry, whose nucleus was located at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany. This current was characterized by its approach to mental disorder from a biologist perspective.

Jaspers is primarily known for his work on delusions; A very relevant aspect of his work is his emphasis on the importance of the topography (the formal aspect) of psychopathological symptoms, as opposed to their specific contents. Other relevant authors of the Heidelberg School are Wilhelm Mayer-Gross and Oswald Bumke.

The clearest antecedent of the Heidelberg School is Emil Kraepelin (1855-1926). This author created a classification of mental disorders based on their manifestations clinical conditions, opposing previous systems that used as the main criterion the causes hypothetical Kraepelin's influence on modern diagnostic classifications is evident.

Contributions by this author

Kurt Schneider's most significant contributions to the field of psychopathology relate to diagnostic methods.

Specifically, he focused on the most characteristic symptoms and signs of certain psychological disorders in order to systematize and facilitate their identification, as well as the distinction of similar but not equivalent phenomena.

1. First rank symptoms of schizophrenia

Schneider delimited the conceptualization of schizophrenia from a series of manifestations to which referred to as "first-rank symptoms," and which would help distinguish this disorder from other types of psychosis. It is important to bear in mind that at the time the term "psychosis" also referred to phenomena such as mania.

The first rank symptoms of schizophrenia according to Schneider would be auditory hallucinations (including voices commenting on the subject's actions and the echo of thought), experiences of passivity (such as delusions of control), the delusion of thought theft, the delusion of diffusion of thought and perceptions delusional.

The influence that this grouping of symptoms has had on subsequent diagnostic classifications has been highly significant. Both the DSM and the CIE manuals are largely inspired by the Schneiderian conception that there are core symptoms (such as delusions and hallucinations) that may be accompanied by other less specific.

• You may be interested in: "The 5 differences between psychosis and schizophrenia"

2. Endogenous and reactive depression

Another of Schneider's most relevant contributions is the distinction between two types of depression: endogenous, which would have a biological origin, and reactive, associated to a greater extent with psychological alterations, particularly due to negative life events.

At present the usefulness of this distinction is highly questioned, largely because it is known that in the supposed "reactive depressions" the functioning of neurotransmitters is altered, in addition to the fact that Schneider's idea underlies a dualistic conception of psychology. Nevertheless, the term "endogenous depression" remains popular.

• Related article: "Are there different types of depression?"

3. The 10 types of psychopathy

Today we understand psychopathy in a similar way to the antisocial personality disorder described by the main diagnostic manuals. These ideas owe much to another of Kurt Schneider's contributions: his description of psychopathy as an ambiguous deviation in relation to normative behavior, and of the 10 types of psychopathy.

Thus, this author created a non-systematic typology, based purely on his own ideas, thus differentiating psychopathy characterized by abnormalities in mood and activity, the insecure-sensitive and insecure-anankastic type, the fanatic, the self-assertive, the emotionally unstable, the explosive, the insensitive, the weak-willed and the asthenic.

• Related article: "Psychopathy: what happens in the mind of the psychopath?"