[The "hysterical character" and the etiology of hysteria in the chronology of Emil Kraepelin's psychiatry textbooks].

Authors

Clara Fuhrmann, Holger Steinberg

Published in

Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie. Oct 19, 2026. Epub Oct 19, 2026.

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to describe and trace the development of the "hysterical character" and the etiology of the concept of hysteria on the basis of the individual editions of Emil Kraepelin's psychiatry textbooks and to discuss the social, methodological and scientific factors influencing it.
The 8 chapters about hysteria in the 1st to the 8^th edition of Kraepelin's psychiatry textbook (published from 1883 to 1915) were analyzed, compared and examined for changes and their motivations for change.
In all 8 editions, hysteria was attributed to a predisposition- related genesis, which had to be activated by external stimuli (e.g., from the sexual organs), with the degree of severity of the necessary stimuli depending on the degree of predispositionn. In the 6^th edition, the immediate causes of the symptoms were described as "strongly emotional ideas", following Paul Julius Möbius' views. In the 8^th edition, Kraepelin added that this emotive process could be traced back to "phylogenetically ancient protective mechanisms" that could manifest themselves due to developmental inhibitions. The "hysterical character" essentially contained the criteria of the "histrionic personality disorder" conceptualized much later in psychiatry, but was expanded, especially in the 5^th and 8^th editions, to include numerous contradictory, socially stigmatizing behaviours.
The research principle of empirical-clinical psychiatry, the theory of degeneration and the nosological and etiological convictions of Möbius, a colleague who stood close to Kraepelin and demonstrably influenced his entire work, can now also be shown to have had an influence on his concept of hysteria. In addition, the social upheavals resulting from the women's movement, stereotypical ideas of femininity and Ernst Haeckel's "Biogenetic Principle" appear to have had a particular influence on his concept of hysteria.

PMID:
42896589
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 20 Oct 2026.

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