Emil Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926) was a German psychiatrist whose classification system for mental illness laid the foundations for modern scientific psychiatry. He studied medicine at the University of Würzburg and worked under experimental psychologist Wilhelm Wundt before holding professorships at the University of Dorpat, Heidelberg University, and the University of Munich. He is best known for distinguishing schizophrenia (which he termed dementia praecox) from manic-depressive psychosis, a division known as the Kraepelinian dichotomy that remains influential today. He also founded the German Institute for Psychiatric Research in Munich, which later became affiliated with the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.