The Schreber case and affective illness: a research diagnostic re-assessment

Abstract

SynopsisA significant part of Schreber's illness up to the time of his dramatic ‘schizophrenic switch’ in February 1894 has been systematically re-evaluated in terms of the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and of certain additional phenomenological characteristics. On this basis it seems that Schreber suffered from a severe major psychotic depressive disorder with tendencies towards bipolarity for the period in question. A more global, non-systematic RDC-oriented interpretation is then offered for the remaining course of the illness until Schreber's death in 1911.