"Impulsive insanity" according to Emil Kraepelin : Aclinical framework for female criminals at the beginning of the twentieth century

Abstract

In his comprehensive classification of the beginning of the twentieth century, Emil Kraepelin provided adetailed description of an entity he called "impulsive insanity", which had not been elaborated before him. The forms depicted by him largely corresponded to the offences, which were referred to as typically female in their nature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. How did Kraepelin classify "impulsive insanity" and what forms did he describe? Did Kraepelin also see these disorders predominantly prevailing in women, did he establish aconnection with women's criminality and how did this fit into the discourses of the time on femininity, criminal legislation and degeneration? This study focused on the clinical picture "impulsive insanity" as described by Emil Kraepelin in his main work, the 8th edition of his Textbook of Psychiatry published between 1909 and 1915. His description was analyzed in detail and embedded in ahistorical context on the basis of secondary literature. In rudiments Kraepelin's clinical classification is still comprehensible today, although there are major differences to how literature in later years treated this issue. Kraepelin clearly sees "impulsive insanity" as adriving disorder predominantly prevailing in women. Elaborating his concept of "impulsive insanity", Kraepelin positioned himself in relation to important scientific discourses of the early twentieth century, such as the debate on criminal legislation and the theory of degeneration. On the basis of the individual forms of "impulsive insanity" described by Kraepelin, various concepts of constructing and pathologizing femininity can be identified. Apparently, it also aims to explain common female crimes within the patriarchal hegemony.