Who Was Emil Kraepelin and Why Do We Remember Him 160 Years Later?

Abstract

In order to commemorate Kraepelin's 160th birthdate and the 130th year from his first professorship, a conference "Emil Kraepelin 160/130" was held in the same Aula of the University of Tartu where 130 years earlier Kraepelin expressed his views about the relationship between psychiatric illnesses and brain functions. This special issue is composed of talks that were held at the conference. However, papers presented in this special issue are in most cases much more elaborated versions of the presented talks. In this introductory article, we remember some basic facts about Emil Kraepelin's life and the impact he made in various areas, not only in psychiatry. We also try to create a context into which papers presented in this special issue of Trames can be placed.

Bibliometric analysis of publications from post-Soviet countries in psychological journals in 1992–2017

“…First, in countries where the greatest growth of publications on psychology is observed, psychological science existed even before the Soviet period (see e.g. Allik 2007Allik , 2011Allik and Tammiksaar 2016;Dafermos 2014), which had created strong traditions and roots. Second, there emerged new actors producing research and publications.…”

Kraepelin in Ceylon

“…This is mostly due to his pioneering work on psychiatric nosology and the delineation of schizophrenia (dementia praecox) and bipolar affective disorder (manic depressive insanity). He made significant contributions to many other areas of science including experimental psychology, psychopharmacology, psychiatric genetics, sleep research and criminology (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). Despite his great scientific achievements, Emil Kraepelin is a polarising figure today, due to his social and political views on racial hygiene and eugenics (6)(7)(8).…”