D. Vonzerssen, PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH IN PREMORBID PERSONA LITY WITHIN GERMAN-SPEAKINGCOUNTRIES - THE LAST 3 DECADES, Fortschritte der Neurologie, Psychiatrie, 64(5), 1996, pp. 168-183
The empirical research in premorbid personality of psychiatric patient
s has markedly advanced in German speaking countries since adequate re
search methods were introduced in the middle of the sixties. Among the
various results are the following: Kretschmer's typological conceptio
n of human constitution were largely refuted and replaced by other con
ceptions on a methodologically more solid ground; Tellenbach's concept
of the ''melancholic type'' as the premorbid structure of the majorit
y of patients suffering from a unipolar affective disorder with melanc
holic features could be convincingly validated; this concept was suppl
emented by that of the ''manic type'' of personality as the premorbid
correlate of the amount of a predisposition to manic episodes within t
he course of an affective disorder; the premorbid deviations of person
ality in schizophrenics and neurotics were shown to possess little nos
ological specificity; furthermore, similar deviations could be demonst
rated in the personality of (still healthy) relatives of patients with
severe mental disorders; the complex relationships of (premorbid) per
sonality. personality disorders and mental disorders were partly clari
fied.