Resumen: | El significado de esquizofrenia ha variado según la época, los países y los estudiosos. Luego de mencionarse a los protopsiquiatras de la antigüedad que intentaron definirla y clasificarla, se examina las contribuciones de Pinet, Esquirol, Morel, y luego las de los psiquiatras alemanes modernos, quienes en el búsqueda de un mayor conocimiento elaboraron la aproximación nosológica que nos rige actualmente, con discretas modificaciones. Kraepelin acuñó el término "Demencia precoz" e incluyó las formas hebefrénica, catatónica y paranoide. Bleuler inventó en nombre actual de la enfermedad y señaló que los síntomas fundamentales eran: trastorno asociativo, autismo y trastorno afectivo. La última parte del artículo trata de algunos psiquiatras contemporáneos que estudiaron la esquizofrenia (Meyer, Sullivan, Jaspers, Schneider y Conrad, entre otros) y menciona la influencia de las escuelas francesa, alemana y norteamericana en la psiquiatría japonesa. (AU)^iesThe paper begins with the assertion that the history of schizophrenia is the history of psychiatry. It is established, however, that the meaning of schizophrenia has changed according to times, countries and researchers. After having mentioned the proto-psychiatrists from old times and their attempts to define and classify schizophrenia, the author reviews the contributions of Pinel, Esquirol and Morel. Then, the modern German psychiatrists, who in their search for a better knowledge of schizophrenia built the currently used, with sligth modifications, nosological approach. We learn, too, of those 19th century psychiatrists who coined psycho-pathological terms so familiar to us nowadays. This was the time when the two most prominent alienists who studied schizophrenia made their still valid contributions: Kraepelin and Bleuler. Both lived and worked around the turn of our century. Kraepelin coined the term Dementia praecox and as a subgroup of his brand new nosological category, he subordinated hebephrenic, catatonic and paranoid forms. Bleuler invented the current name of the disease (split mind) and pointed out association disorder, autism and effect disorder as the fundamental symptoms. In the latter part of the paper we learn of some contemporary psychiatrists who studied schizophrenia (Meyer, Sullivan, Jaspers, Schneider y Conrad, among others) and the author tells us about the French, German and American influences upon Japanese psychiatry. (AU)^ien.
|