Department Seminar Series: The Rise and Fall of Kraepelinian Psychiatry

Psychiatric classifications emerge from and are employed in the context of theoretical approaches that take certain assumptions about the nature of mental illness for granted. This presentation will provide an overview of the historical development of Kraepelinian and neo-Kraepelinian psychiatric classifications and will examine how questions of classification, especially the tension between description and hypothetical-conjectural methods, have intersected with questions about the nature of psychiatric disorders in modern history. The talk will end with an appreciation of the ongoing controversies reflecting the difficulties inherent in defining and classifying mental illness, with some preliminary remarks on future directions.

The seminar will be held in a hybrid format, with a wider audience able to attend via Zoom, please see the Zoom joining link below:

• https://zoom.us/j/94457342362?pwd=bCtoSXlaSjRNejBMaXluSTMwVWdVQT09
• Meeting ID: 944 5734 2362
• Passcode: 051588