Kraepelin, Emil (krĕpəlēn`), 1856–1926, German psychiatrist, educated at Würzburg (M.D., 1878). He also studied under Wilhelm Wundt Wundt, Wilhelm Max (vĭl`hĕlm mäks v
..... Click the link for more information. in Leipzig, and was appointed professor of psychiatry at the Univ. of Dorpat, Heidelberg (1891) and Münich (1903), where he also directed a clinic. Kraepelin authored nine editions of a textbook which classified mental diseases according to their cause, symptomatology, course, final stage, and pathological anatomical findings, producing a system of classification which has relevance even today. He established the clinical pictures of dementia praecox (now known as schizophrenia schizophrenia (skĭt'səfrē`nēə)
..... Click the link for more information. ) in 1893, and of manic-depressive psychosis (now known as bipolar disorder bipolar disorder, formerly manic-depressive disorder or manic-depression, severe mental disorder involving manic episodes that are usually accompanied by episodes of depression .
..... Click the link for more information. ) in 1899, after analyzing thousands of case histories. Kraepelin was concerned only with diagnostic classification, and did not accept the theory of unconscious mental activity postulated by psychoanalysts. His classification of mental disorders served as the foundation for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), the standard reference text used by psychiatrists today. His major work is his Textbook of Psychiatry (9th ed. 1927).

Kraepelin, Emil

(born Feb. 15, 1856, Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Strelitz—died Oct. 7, 1926, Munich, Ger.) German psychiatrist. He taught at the Universities of Heidelberg and Munich, where he developed an influential classification system for mental illness, the Psychiatric Compendium (nine eds., 1883–1926). He was the first to distinguish (in 1899) between manic-depressive psychosis (bipolar disorder) and dementia praecox (schizophrenia), and the first to distinguish three clinical varieties of the latter: catatonia, hebephrenia, and paranoia.