Kraepelin's system of mental diseases has contributed substantially to the foundation of modern psychiatric diagnosis in the DSM-IV and ICD-10. Considering Kraepelin's influence in the creation of these diagnostic tools, the question arises as to how Kraepelin's contemporaries and successors reacted to his nosology. Historical libraries and archives in Munich, Berlin and Paris were searched for European and American psychiatric literature using the keywords 'Kraepelin', 'dichotomy' and 'manic-depressive disorder'. Literature from 1900 to 1960 was examined and compared to the current literature regarding Kraepelin's impact on modern classification systems. The sixth edition of Kraepelin's 'Lehrbuch' (1899) presented the dichotomy in its entirety and led to three different periods of critical comment on dichotomy and methodology between 1900 and 1960. But on the whole, Kraepelin's system was quickly and completely adopted in clinical diagnosis. The publications appearing on and following Kraepelin's centenary in 1956 represent his work as generally being the foundation of modern psychiatry. The neo-Kraepelinian movement, beginning in the late 1960s, developed more differentiated views of Kraepelin's scientific background and methodology. Notwithstanding all the criticism of Kraepelin's dichotomy, it remains more than ever the basis of psychiatric diagnosis. The criticism today shows parallels to the statements made during Kraepelin's era, mainly concerning the issue of diagnostic overlapping of the two disease entities, manic-depressive disorder and schizophrenia, and includes the question of syndromatology.
© 2011 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2011 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.