Orthodoxy and schism in psychiatry
Dietrich, H.
Münchener Medizinische Wochenschrift 123(19): 775-776
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0341-3098 PMID: 6785635 Document Number: 182625
Whereas the numerous psychotherapy schools in the Freud tradition seem slightly ephemeral from the historical point of view, and whereas the intramural and extramural advocates of the philosophical, psychological psychosomatic and purely scientific aspects of psychiatry wage a constant war of competition for the recognition of their special fields and expansion of their power over others, Kraepelin's teaching, whose spirit has already survived two generations of psychiatrists, is even gaining recognition and power of persuasion. It is therefore termed orthodox, the others schismatic. The combination of an empirical phenomenology of psychiatric diseases with their biological roots places Kraepelin's psychiatry on a sure foundation which makes possible convention, uniform assessment of homologous cases, legal security in giving expert opinions and the clinical framework for experimental research.