Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2030

RICHARD VON KRAFFT-EBING (1840-1902) Beiträge zur Erkennung und richtigen forensischen Beurtheilung krankhafter Gemüthszustände für Aerzte, Richter und Vertheidiger. Ferdinand Enke 1867 vii, 74 pp. 21 cm.

Born at Mannheim, Krafft-Ebing studied medicine at Heidelberg and Zurich before graduating from Heidelberg in 1863. After service in the Franco-Prussian War, he was appointed assistant in the Illenau Lunatic Asylum at Baden-Baden and in 1872 became professor of psychiatry at Strasbourg. A year later he was appointed director of the Feldhof Asylum near Graz and in 1874 became professor of psychiatry at the university in Graz. After the death of Leidesdorf in 1889, Krafft-Ebing was appointed head of the first psychiatric clinic at Vienna and he succeeded Meynert in the psychiatric clinic at the general hospital in 1892. One of Krafft-Ebing's most important contributions was in establishing the relationship between syphilis and general paralysis. Other interests ranged from genetic function in insanity and sexual deviation to epilepsy, paralysis agitans, hemicrania, and hypnosis. His Lehrbuch der gerichtlichen Psychopathologie (Stuttgart, 1875) and Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie auf klinischer Grundlage (Stuttgart, 1879) were important textbooks which helped define the role played by psychiatry in the clinical service of the hospital. In this, one of Krafft-Ebing's earliest works, he presents the characteristics of depression and melancholy for physicians, judges, and defense attorneys. He is particularly concerned with showing how the diseased mind can be moved to commit criminal acts.