Ernst Kretschmer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the professor of linguistics, see Ernst Kretschmer (linguist).
Ernst Kretschmer

Ernst Kretschmer
Born
October 8, 1888
Wstenrot
Died
February 8, 1964 (aged 75)
Tbingen
Nationality
Germany
Fields
Psychiatry
Institutions
Marburg University
Known for
Typology
Ernst Kretschmer, Dr. med. Dr. phil. h.c. (October 8, 1888 February 8, 1964), was
a German psychiatrist who researched the human constitution and established a typology.
Contents
[hide]
1 Life
2 Character styles
3 Works
4 See also
5 References
6 References
7 External links
Life[edit]
Kretschmer was born in Wstenrot near Heilbronn. He attended Cannstatt Hochschule, one of the
oldest Latin schools in Stuttgart. From 1906 to 1912 he studied theology, medicine,
and philosophy at the universities of Tbingen, Munich and Hamburg. From 1913 he was assistant
of Robert Gaupp in Tbingen, where he received his habilitation in 1918. He continued as assistant
medical director until 1926.
Kretschmer was the first to describe the persistent vegetative state which has also been
called Kretschmer's syndrome. Another medical term coined after him is Kretschmers
sensitive paranoia.[1] This classification has the merit of singling out "a type of paranoia that was
unknown" prior to Kretschmer, and which "does not resemble the stereotypical image [...] of sthenic
paranoia".
[1]
Furthermore, between 1915 and 1921 he developed a differential diagnosis between
schizophrenia and manic depression.
Kretschmer is also known for developing a classification system that can be seen as one of the
earliest exponents of a constitutional (the total plan or philosophy on which something is
constructed) approach. His classification system was based on three main body
types: asthenic/leptosomic (thin, small, weak), athletic (muscular, largeboned), and pyknic (stocky,
fat). (The athletic category was later combined into the category asthenic/leptosomic.) Each of these
body types was associated with certain personality traits and, in a more extreme form,
psychopathologies. Kretschmer believed that pyknic persons were friendly, interpersonally
dependent, and gregarious. In a more extreme version of these traits, this would mean for example
that the obese are predisposed toward manic-depressive illness. Thin types were associated with
introversion and timidity. This was seen as a milder form of the negative symptoms exhibited by
withdrawn schizophrenics. However, the idea of the association of body types with personality traits
is no longer influential in personality theory.
In 1926 he became the director of the psychiatric clinic at Marburg University.
Kretschmer was a founding member of the AGP (General medical society for psychotherapy)
which was founded on January 12, 1927. He was the president of AGP from 1929. In 1933 he
resigned from the AGP for political reasons, but started to support the SS and signed the "Vow of
allegiance of the professors of the German universities and high-schools to Adolf Hitler and the
National Socialistic state."
[2]
He did not oppose the eugenic laws of Nazi Germany.
From 1946 until 1959, Kretschmer was the director of the psychiatric clinic of the University of
Tbingen. He died, aged 75, in Tbingen.
Character styles[edit]
Kretschmer divided personality into two "constitutional groups": Schizothymic, which contain a
"Psychaesthetic proportion" between sensitive and cold poles, and Cyclothymic which contain a
"Diathetic" proportion between gay and sad. The Schizoids consist of the Hyperesthetic (sensitive)
and Anesthetic (Cold) characters, and the Cycloids consist of the Depressive (or "melancholic")
and Hypomanic characters.
Works[edit]
Wahnbildung und manisch-depressiver Symptomenkomplexe, Berlin, (1914, dissertation)
(development of delusion and manic-depressive symptom complex)
Der sensitive Beziehungswahn, Berlin(1918), 2. Aufl. Berlin (1927), habilitation) (the sensitive
relative delusion)
Physique and Character (International Library of Psychology) (1931), Routledge, ISBN 0-415-
21060-7
Medizinische Psychologie, (1922) (medical psychology)
Hysteria, Reflex, and Instinct, Leipzig (1923) Greenwood, ISBN 0-8371-5754-4
Die Veranlagung zu seelischen Strungen, mit Ferdinand Adalbert Kehrer (18831966), Berlin
(1924) (the disposition for psychic disturbances)
Strungen des Gefhlslebens, Temperamente, Handbuch der Geisteskrankheiten. Band 1.
Berlin (1928) (psychic disturbances and temperaments)
The Psychology of Men of Genious (International Library of Psychology), Berlin (1929),
Routledge, ISBN 0-415-21061-5
Das apallische Syndrom, in Ztschr. Neurol. Psychiat, 169,576-579 (1940) (the apallic syndrome)
Psychotherapeuthische Studien, Stuttgart (1949) (psychotherapeutic studies)
Robert Gaupp zum Gedchtnis, Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift, Stuttgart (1953) 78:
1713. (in memory of Robert Gaupp)
Gestufte Aktivhypnose - Zweigleisige Standardmethode, In: V. E. Frankl, V.v. Gebsattel and J.H.
Schultz, Hrsg.: Handbuch der Neurosenlehre und Psychotherapie, Band IV, pp. 130141. Urban
& Schwarzenberg, Mnchen-Berlin (1959)
Gestalten und Gedanken (1963) (characters and thoughts)
See also[edit]
Posture (psychology)
Eugne Minkowski
References[edit]
Ideology and ethics. The perversion of German psychiatrists ethics by the ideology of National
Socialism. by L. Singer, Eur. Psychiatry 1998
Un apercu sur la psychiatrie sociale allemande en 1934. by J. Bieder, Ann. Med. Psychol. 1996
Priwitzer, Martin, Ernst Kretschmer und das Wahnproblem, (Ernst Kretschmer and the problem
of delusion) Dissertation, 2004; published - Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2007, xiv + 314 S.
Millon, T., Grossman, S., Millon, C., Meagher, S & Ramnath, R. (2004). Personality disorders in
modern life (2nd edition). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
de Georges, P. (2012). "The Meaning of Kretschmer". Hurly-Burly 8: 149-168.
References[edit]
1. Jump up^ Miller, J.-A., in de Georges, P. (2012). "The Meaning of Krestchmer". Hurly-Burly 8:
161.
2. Jump up^ (In German: "Bekenntnis der Professoren an den deutschen Universitten und
Hochschulen zu Adolf Hitler und dem nationalsozialistischen Staat" Ernst Klee: Das
Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch
Verlag, Zweite aktualisierte Auflage, Frankfurt am Main 2005, S. 339.
External links[edit]
Images in Psychiatry: Ernst Kretschmer (18881964)