Psychoses in Adult Mental Defectives: II. Schizophrenic and Paranoid Psychoses

Abstract

Kraepelin (1896, 1902) believed that approximately 7 per cent of cases of dementia praecox arose upon the basis of imbecility. He also suggested that ‘certain forms of idiocy with developed mannerisms and stereotypies might be early cases of dementia praecox’, and proposed the term ‘Pfropfschizophrenie’ to denote ‘eine besonders früh entstandene Schizophrenic’ (a schizophrenic psychosis of particularly early onset). Though he later modified his views and agreed that the rhythmic movements seen in some idiots did not in fact signify dementia praecox, he continued to believe that dementia praecox beginning in the first decade could produce 'states of weakness … regarded as imbecility or idiocy’.