2007/11/29 by E. E. Southard, Richard Noll · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Neuroscience · #Mental Health and Psychiatry #Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices #Neurology and Historical Studies
paper · doi:10.1177/0957154x07082895
openalex publication_date 2007/11/29 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
In February 1919 the Harvard neuropathologist Elmer Ernst Southard (1876—1920) presented a paper in which he outlined his reasons for dropping the term `dementia praecox' in favour of a competing diagnostic concept and term, `schizophrenia'. Southard's criticisms reflected the opinion of many US psychiatrists at that time, leading to the replacement of Emil Kraepelin's dementia praecox by Eugen Bleuler's schizophrenia in US psychiatry by the mid-1920s. The text of Southard's lecture is published here for the first time. Also included are excerpts from letters from US psychiatrists George H. Kirby, Albert M. Barrett, Adolf Meyer and August Hoch to Southard in response to his query as to whether dementia praecox or schizophrenia should be adopted in US psychiatric nomenclature.