How Kraepelinian was Kraepelin? How Kraepelinian are the neo-Kraepelinians? — from Emil Kraepelin to DSM-III

2007/09/01 by Hannah S. Decker · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Mental Health and Psychiatry #Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices #Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology

paper · doi:10.1177/0957154x07078976

openalex publication_date 2007/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02

Abstract

The contents of the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) can only be understood by studying aspects of the last one hundred years of psychiatric history. This paper deals with: (1) three aspects of Kraepelinian psychiatry--descriptive psychiatry, Kraepelin's devotion to empirical research and his inability always to carry it through, and his anti-psychoanalytic stance; (2) the optimistic yet troubled state of American psychiatry in the period 1946 to 1974; (3) the work of the so-called 'neo-Kraepelinians', especially that of Eli Robins, Samuel Guze and George Winokur; and (4) Robert Spitzer and the making of DSM-III.

Citations

• DSM-III and the transformation of American psychiatry: a history
• A Re-analysis of the Reliability of Psychiatric Diagnosis
• Identification of Cryphonectria cubensis from Colombia based on rDNA sequence data
• On Being Sane in Insane Places

Cited by

• Emil Kraepelin [wikipedia]

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