The notion of psychopathic personalities in Kurt Schneider's concept

Abstract

The understanding of psychopathic personalities in early works of Kurt Schneider making start from the traditional doctrine of temperament but straying from the degeneration theory and constitutional concepts of E. Kretschmer is analyzed. Under the notion of psychopathic personality K. Schneider means properly the variation of the character that according to his famous definition can cause by its 'deviations from the average' suffering for the society and can also suffers itself due to those deviations. The importance that K. Schneider attached to the differentiation of all personality anomalies from schizophrenic process is emphasized. The basic characteristics of 10 special types of psychopathic personalities according to K. Schneider's systematics are also analyzed. K. Schneider pursued the identification of one prominent psychological trait in the building of his systematics and definition of special psychopathic types. He strived to avoid sociological labels that had been used by his predecessors ('liars and cheaters', 'enemies of society' 'inborn prostitute' and so on). The great influence of E. Kretschmer on K. Schneider's characteristics of 'affective' and 'unsure of himself' psychopaths is noted although K. Schneider did not accepted the constitutional systems of E. Kretschmer and did not highlight 'schizoid' psychopathy. The growth of psychopathic personality groups compared with the last lifetime systematics of E. Kraepelin (from eight to ten) appears by K. Schneider only formal because E. Kraepelin placed some clinically detailed descriptions of personality disorders beyond the main heading.