Revisiting Emil Kraepelin's eugenic arguments.

Autor: Yamamura K; Kyoto University, Japan., Murai T; Kyoto University, Japan.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: History of psychiatry [Hist Psychiatry] 2024 Jun; Vol. 35 (2), pp. 206-214. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Feb 20.
DOI: 10.1177/0957154X241230273
Abstrakt: It is widely recognized that Emil Kraepelin explicitly advocated for eugenic ideas in his academic works. Given the renewed interest in related concepts such as self-domestication and neo-Lamarckism in different contexts, this article revisits his eugenic arguments by scrutinizing a section of his seminal work, the 8th edition of his textbook published in 1909. Our analysis reveals that Kraepelin's arguments consisted of multiple theories and ideas prevalent at the time (i.e. self-domestication hypothesis, neo-Lamarckism, degeneration theory, social Darwinism, racism and ethnic nationalism), each of which presented individual fundamental claims. Nevertheless, Kraepelin amalgamated them into one combined narrative, which crystallized into an anti-humanistic psychiatry in the next generation. This paper cautions that a similar 'packaging of ideas' might be emerging now.
Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Databáze: MEDLINE