Emil Kraepelin's 'Self-Assessment': clinical autography in historical context

Abstract

Contemporary psychiatrists and historians know very little about the life of Emil Kraepelin. Until recently they had to glean what information they could from his memoirs, which had more to say about his travels to far-flung corners of the world than about his own mental life. Now, however, a unique historical document has been uncovered which opens a window on Kraepelin's own psyche. In a manuscript written shortly after World War I, Kraepelin turned his diagnostic methods on himself and clinically documented his own state of mind. This paper reproduces a translation of Kraepelin's 'Self-Assessment' and places it in its historical context.