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Negative Versus Positive Schizophrenia pp 425–440Cite as

The Demise of the Kraepelinian Binary Concept and the Aetiological Unity of the Psychoses

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Abstract

Emil Kraepelin’s key contribution was to establish that there is a relationship between the form of a psychotic illness and its outcome. Illnesses in which affective change is a prominent component have a better outcome than those in which affective features are less prominent and in which the psychotic phenomena cannot be understood as secondary to affective change. The success of the Kraepelinian system, even its survival, owes everything to the reality of this relationship. Yet the independence of the two Kraepelinian entities has never been satisfactorily established (and Kraepelin himself had doubts). Notwithstanding this, the influence of the Kraepelinian concept is pervasive: every textbook has separate chapters on schizophrenia and affective disorder. A major objective of operational diagnostic criteria such as the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) III is to separate these two entities with maximum reliability.

This paper will also appear as a chapter entitled “The Failure of the Kraepelinian Binary Concept and the Search for the Psychosis Gene”. In: Kerr A, McClelland H (eds) (1991) Concepts of mental disorder. Gaskell, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Psychiatry, Clinical Research Centre, Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, HA1 3UJ, UK

    T. J. Crow

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  1. T. J. Crow
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik, Sigmund-Freud-Straße 25, W-5300, Bonn, Germany

    Andreas Marneros

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, 500 Newton Road, Iowa City, IO, 52242, USA

    Nancy C. Andreasen MD., Ph. D.

  3. Harvard Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology, Brockton/West Roxbury VA Medical Center, 940 Belmont Street, Brockton, MA, 02401, USA

    Ming T. Tsuang MD., Ph. D., D. Sc.

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Crow, T.J. (1991). The Demise of the Kraepelinian Binary Concept and the Aetiological Unity of the Psychoses. In: Marneros, A., Andreasen, N.C., Tsuang, M.T. (eds) Negative Versus Positive Schizophrenia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76841-5_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76841-5_25

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-76843-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-76841-5

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