Emil Kraeplin (1856-1926)

Professional Life
Emil Kraeplin was born in Neustrelitz, Germany on February 15, 1856. He studied medicine at the University of Leipzig, where he learned experimental psychology and neuropathology under the guidance of Wilhelm Wundt and Paul Fleschsig. He went to the University of Munich to finish his thesis and worked with Bernhard von Gudden. In 1882, Kraeplin returned to Leipzig and joined the neurology clinic. His first major publication, Compendium der Psychiatrie, called for medical research into psychological illnesses. Kraeplin believed that studying mental illness scientifically through experimentation and observation would reveal precursors to mental illness. Kreaplin was directly responsible for today’s classification system of mental disorders.

Kraeplin joined the psychiatry staff at the University of Dorpat in Estonia in 1886. While there, he headed a clinic and began to study the clinical histories of the patients he saw. He realized the importance of identifying the historical course of the symptoms and illnesses the patients had relative to classification of specific disorders. This experience led to his “clinical” vies of mental illness, which differed from the traditional “symptomatic” views. This breakthrough led to the classification of mental illnesses by syndromes, or patterns of specific symptoms that progressed to a specific illness. Previously, psychologists had grouped disorders according to the similarity of symptoms. It was this ineffective method of diagnoses that spurred Kraeplin to develop his system.

Contribution to Psychology
Although Kraeplin is responsible for the development of the modern system of classification of mental disorders, the identification of two specific disorders is a direct result of his work. Prior to Kraeplin’s efforts, psychosis was recognized as one illness. However, Kraelin realized that there were two distinct issues that fell into that category, manic depression and dementia praecox, or schizophrenia, a condition that occurs in youth and results in mental impairment. The distinction between these two forms of psychoses lies in the pattern of symptoms, not the similarity of symptoms. Kraeplin viewed mental illness in a clinical light rather than a pathological light. Additionally, Kraeplin focused on the genetic patterns evident in individuals with these illnesses, primarily with respect to family history.

Kraeplin postulated that the course of symptoms and the realized effect throughout one’s life was a factor for classification as well. People with schizophrenia were bound to experience degenerative cognitive functioning while people with manic depressive symptoms could experience periods of symptoms and periods absent of symptoms. Kraeplin also worked with Alois Alzheimer, who discovered Alzheimer’s disease, to explore the biological pathology present in mental illnesses as a marker for classification. Although few people are aware of his influence, Kraeplin’s work is at the foundation of all diagnostic measures used in psychology today, including the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV and the World Health Organization’s ICD tool. He is recognized by many as the founder of psychopharmacology, modern scientific psychiatry, and psychiatric genetics.