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The Schreber case and affective illness: a research diagnostic re-assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Karl G. Koehler*
Affiliation:
Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik, Heidelberg, West Germany
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr med. Karl G. Koehler, Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik, Voss Strasse 4, 6900 Heidelberg, West Germany.

Synopsis

A significant part of Schreber's illness up to the time of his dramatic ‘schizophrenic switch’ in February 1894 has been systematically re-evaluated in terms of the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and of certain additional phenomenological characteristics. On this basis it seems that Schreber suffered from a severe major psychotic depressive disorder with tendencies towards bipolarity for the period in question. A more global, non-systematic RDC-oriented interpretation is then offered for the remaining course of the illness until Schreber's death in 1911.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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