Evolution of the concept of psychopathy in Russian psychiatry from V.H. Kandinskiy to S.A. Sukhanov

Abstract

The development of the concept of clinical signs of «general» predisposition to mental diseases that is defined by the notion of psychopathy is analyzed. The foundations of this concept in Russian psychiatry were laid by V.H. Kandinskiy and V.M. Behterev, hereinafter they were developed by S.S. Korsakov, P.I. Kovalevskiy and V.P. Serbskiy. S.A. Sukhanov and P.B. Gannushkin focused on the separate types of abnormal character that were connected with different neurosis and «degenerative» psychosis. According to S.A. Sukhanov's concept, the anxious-doubting (psychasthenic) character with the amplification of its symptoms transits to psychasthenia, the patological reasoning character (close to paranoic) to delusional disorders (or paranoic psychosis), hysterical character to hysterical neurosis, «morally defective» character to «moral madness». S.A. Sukhanov suggested the systematics of abnormal characters not by one prominent trait but by the presence of several signs from more broad set of traits that generally are typical for the given abnormal character.