[Emil Kraepelin's work at the Silesian Provincial Psychiatric State Hospital in Leubus].
Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926) worked as surgical resident physician at Leubus (Lubiaz) Psychiatric State Hospital (asylum) in Silesia from August 1884 to April 1885. The asylum had been founded in a converted monastery as recommended by Johann Gottfried Langermann (1768-1832). Its first superintendent was Moritz Gustav Martini (1794-1875). Although no primary documents concerning Kraepelin's stay at Leubus could be found in the archives, the secondary sources and Kraepelin's own publications offer a good perspective on his Leubus period. Thus, his ground-breaking psychopathological study of confusion is based on patients observed at Leubus. Furthermore, it was here that his work on the major paper on falsifications of memory was begun. Kraepelin also finished the second part of his study "On the psychology of the comic" and wrote a postscript to his paper on the validity of Weber's law regarding light sensations. Since the then superintendent Wilhelm Alter (1843-1918) did not object to his residents doing scientific work, Kraepelin encouraged the voluntary resident physician Max Salomon (1860-?) to write a thesis on double-thinking. He also devoted a great deal of his time to writing reviews and to research in experimental psychology. Kraepelin's time at Leubus, similar to his Dresden period, are but a transitional phase for his final return to the university which he had left temporarily because he was disappointed and frustrated by the lack of career opportunities that suited his needs.
Steinberg
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H
Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie, Germany. steinbh@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Angermeyer
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MC
D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000266:history*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*