Early descriptions of schizophrenia may be found in the writings of
Haslam and Morel, but the turning point in the development of the modern
concept was Ewald Hecker's classic paper on hebephrenia in 1871. The
syndrome he described--a psychosis of early onset with a deteriorating
course characterized by a "silly" affect, behavioral peculiarities, and
formal thought disorder--not only adumbrated Kraepelin's generic category
of dementia praecox but quite specifically defined the later subtype of
hebephrenic, or disorganized, schizophrenia as well. The present
translation into English of Hecker's "Die Hebephrenie" makes accessible a
crucial milestone in the history of modern psychiatry.Abstract Teaser