Continuing on from the reflections on Professor Karl Jaspers ‘General Psychopathology’, i’m making a few notes on Professor Kurt Schneider’s ‘Clinical Psychopathology’ (Schneider, 1959) and adding some reflections.
- The edition I have is from 1959 and is a translation based on the fifth revised edition of ‘Klinische Psychopathologie’ which was published by Georg Theime Verlage, Stuttgart.
- This translation is published by Grune & Stratton in New York. The translation is by M.W.Hamilton in the University of Manchester Psychiatry department.
- This edition is 173 pages.
- On page 133 in the chapter on cyclothymia and schizophrenia, Schneider writes about the first rank symptoms. These are of historical significance. He writes (in translation) “… there are some which we put in the first rank of importance, not because we think them to be “basic disturbances” but because they have this special value in helping us to determine the diagnosis of schizophrenia as distinct from nonpsychotic abnormality or from cyclothymia …”
Reflecting on the book, it is notable that a lot of the important early work in psychopathology was taking place in Germany. Schneider was a student of the Heidelberg School of Psychiatry founded by Jaspers. In turn, Jaspers was influenced by Professor Edmund Husserl who developed phenomenology. Professor Dermot Moran has written an interesting chapter on the intersection between phenomenology and existentialism which references the interactions between Jaspers and Husserl in The Existential Husserl (Moran, 2022). He notes that Jaspers visited Husserl in Göttingen in 1913. Jaspers had taken up a post at Heidelberg University, whilst Husserl had been based at the University of Göttingen at the time of his meeting with Jaspers. Schneider trained in Cologne and would later become the director at the German Research Institute in Munich. In short, a number of important developments were happening in Germany over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that would have a profound influence on the development of psychopathology.
On a separate note, Clinical Psychopathology is not the first reference to the first rank symptoms. Schneider had first published this in a monograph in 1939 (Schneider, 1939) but it had become more influential with the publication of Clinical Psychopathology. The monograph is referenced by Kendler and Mishara in their paper tracing the chronology of Schneider’s first rank symptoms (Kendler and Mishara, 2019).
The significance of Schneider’s work is profound and the impact of Schneider on DSM is discussed by Moritz and colleagues (Moritz et al, 2024).
This was just a brief look at Clinical Psychopathology and the context of Schneider’s work. It is said that Schneider made Jasper’s work more accessible given the shorter length compared to the two volumes of Jasper’s work. From my perspective, these works require multiple readings and the interpretation is influenced by the contextualisation. This in turn can be modified by framing the reading from slightly different perspectives. For instance, reading from the phenomenological perspective, a historiographic perspective or in the context of diagnostic classifications. For the latter (Moritz et al, 2024) demonstrate that such perspectives are dynamic and there is benefit in revisiting these works to inform debate. Such works have an unusual property in that they do not age in the same way as other works.
References
Kendler KS, Mishara A. The prehistory of Schneider’s first-rank symptoms: texts from 1810 to 1932. Schizophr Bull. 2019 Sep 11;45(5):971-90. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbz047. PMID:31206162; PMCID:PMC6737481.
Moran D. Husserl, Jaspers, and Heidegger on life and existence. In: Cavallaro M, Heffernan G, editors. The existential Husserl. Cham: Springer; 2022. p. 185-208. (Contributions to Phenomenology; vol. 120). doi:10.1007/978-3-031-05095-4_9.
Moritz S, Gawęda Ł, Carpenter WT, Aleksandrowicz A, Borgmann L, Gallinat J, Fuchs T. What Kurt Schneider really said and what the DSM has made of it in its different editions: a plea to redefine hallucinations in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 2024 Jan 1;50(1):22-31. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbad131. PMID:37738451; PMCID:PMC10754170.
Schneider K. Psychischer Befund und psychiatrische Diagnose. Leipzig: Georg Thieme; 1939.
Schneider K. Clinical psychopathology. Hamilton MWH, translator. New York: Grune & Stratton; 1959. 173 p.
Notes on the Preparation of this Post
Chat GPT 5.4 was used to modify the background of a photograph of Schneider’s ‘Clinical Psychopathology’. The background is meant to symbolically reflect the hope that progress in the general understanding of this subject can bring about an improvement in assessment and interventions. Chat GPT 5.4 was used to generate Vancouver referencing and also to identify some further references and clarify the details around the monograph which were then cross-checked with (Kendler and Mishara, 2019).
Disclaimer
The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.
