Der Forschungsansatz Kraepelins aus der Sicht seiner klinischen Praxis

Abstract

The present investigation documents the tension field of practical methodological and conceptual problems in which Kraepelin saw himself. A source is used to which little attention had been devoted so far: the archive of patient files from the year 1900. In the years after 1898, Kraepelin attempted to arrive at a nosology which is empirical and has at the same time psychopathological basis in the sense of Kahlbaum. The methodological postulates of Kraepelin based on positivistic epistemology were theoretically epochmaking, but were disappointing in terms of practical empirical results in the years which followed. Kraepelin postulated that the further course could be predicted and these predictions checked from the initial psychopathological findings. However, the sources drawn upon indicated that Kraepelin proceeded in the opposite way in practice in 1900 and held to a dichotomy of the course which in fact occurred. The traditional question as to the width or narrowness of the nosological terms dementia praecox and manic-depressive psychosis which is traditionally posed in this connection is taken up and discussed in detail. The study is concluded with comparative reflections on the conception of the "neo-Kraepelinian school".