Editing Emil Kraepelin (section)

=== Psychopathic personalities ===
In the first through sixth edition of Kraepelin's influential psychiatry textbook, there was a section on [[moral insanity]], which meant then a disorder of the emotions or moral sense without apparent delusions or hallucinations, and which Kraepelin defined as "lack or weakness of those sentiments which counter the ruthless satisfaction of egotism". He attributed this mainly to degeneration. This has been described as a psychiatric redefinition of [[Cesare Lombroso]]'s theories of the "born criminal", conceptualised as a "[[moral]] defect", though Kraepelin stressed it was not yet possible to recognise them by physical characteristics.<ref name=Wetzell2000>[[Richard Wetzell]] (2000) [https://books.google.com/books?id=iGW7QLJmuwoC Inventing the criminal: a history of German criminology, 1880–1945] from p 59 & 146, misc.</ref>

In fact from 1904 Kraepelin changed the section heading to "The born criminal", moving it from under "Congenital feeble-mindedness" to a new chapter on "Psychopathic personalities". They were treated under a theory of degeneration. Four types were distinguished: born criminals (inborn delinquents), [[pathological liars]], [[querulous]] persons, and Triebmenschen (persons driven by a basic compulsion, including [[Vagabond (person)|vagabonds]], [[spendthrifts]], and [[dipsomaniacs]]).

The concept of "[[psychopathic]] inferiorities" had been recently popularised in Germany by [[Julius Ludwig August Koch]], who proposed congenital and acquired types. Kraepelin had no evidence or explanation suggesting a congenital cause, and his assumption therefore appears to have been simple "[[biologism]]". Others, such as [[Gustav Aschaffenburg]], argued for a varying combination of causes. Kraepelin's assumption of a moral defect rather than a positive drive towards crime has also been questioned, as it implies that the moral sense is somehow inborn and unvarying, yet it was known to vary by time and place, and Kraepelin never considered that the moral sense might just be different.

[[Kurt Schneider]] criticized Kraepelin's nosology on topics such as [[Haltlose]] for appearing to be a list of behaviors that he considered undesirable, rather than medical conditions, though Schneider's alternative version has also been criticised on the same basis. Nevertheless, many essentials of these diagnostic systems were introduced into the diagnostic systems, and remarkable similarities remain in the DSM-5 and ICD-10.<ref name=Wetzell2000/> The issues would today mainly be considered under the category of [[personality disorders]], or in terms of Kraepelin's focus on [[psychopathy]].

Kraepelin had referred to psychopathic conditions (or "states") in his 1896 edition, including compulsive insanity, impulsive insanity, [[homosexuality]], and mood disturbances. From 1904, however, he instead termed those "original disease conditions, and introduced the new alternative category of psychopathic personalities. In the eighth edition from 1909 that category would include, in addition to a separate "dissocial" type, the excitable, the unstable, the Triebmenschen driven persons, eccentrics, the liars and swindlers, and the quarrelsome. It has been described as remarkable that Kraepelin now considered mood disturbances to be not part of the same category, but only attenuated (more mild) phases of manic depressive illness; this corresponds to current classification schemes.<ref>Henning Sass & Alan Felthous (2008) Chapter 1: History and Conceptual Development of Psychopathic Disorders in [https://books.google.com/books?id=8WhcGo-1MkYC International Handbook on Psychopathic Disorders and the Law]. Edited by Alan Felthous, Henning Sass.</ref>