Classic Text No. 135: 'On inheritance of the insanities', by Jens Chr. Smith (1924).

Serious and realistic research into the inheritance of the psychoses started in earnest at the beginning of the twentieth century. This was encouraged by both the acceptance of the Kraepelinian classification and the rediscovery of the Mendelian model of inheritance. The application of Mendelian rules to the very complex genetics of the psychoses led to agonizing debate.

Classic Text No. 134: 'A case of Wernicke-Bostroem's expansive autopsychosis', by Ib Ostenfeld (1944).

Expansive autopsychosis, grouped with cycloid psychoses - an illness entity of double origin: (1) Morel's notion degeneracy, reformulated by Magnan and Legrain (reflected in Wimmer's concept: psychogenic psychosis); (2) Wernicke's, Kleist's, Bostroem's (and later Leonhard's) notion of these purportedly independent conditions. Locked in the Danish language, Strömgren and Ostenfeld provided important contributions to this field, exemplified by Ostenfeld's casuistry, translated in this Classic Text.

'Acquired idiotism', by Frederik Lange (1883).

The little-known writing by Frederik Lange translated in this Classic Text belongs to what can be called the prolegomenal history of the construction of the concept of schizophrenia. It describes one effort to capture the convergence of certain of diverse coinage (dementia praecox, acquired idiocy, hebephrenia, heboidophrenia, etc.) with some newly accepted (e.

Classic Text No. 126: 'Some main features in the history of the paranoid illness forms', by Aa. Thune Jacobsen (1921).

Since its construction in Classical times, the meaning of 'paranoia' has changed at least three times. Important gaps still interrupt its long chronology, and more studies of specific clinical and cultural usages are needed before its total history is put together.

'My insanity in the year 1783', by C.S. Andresen (1801).

The literature of the past has included self-reports by the mentally ill since before Roy Porter reminded us that their views and experiences constitute an important document for historians of psychiatry. The value of these self-reports can be enhanced if their potential biases and informational power are duly determined. This Classic Text concerns a self-report of a form of periodic madness written by an eighteenth-century Danish vicar.

'Insanity in Classical Antiquity', by JL Heiberg (1913).

Heiberg's 1913 text on psychopathological concepts and terms in classical times remains important because of its freshness and historiographical value. A philologist and classical scholar, he seemed puzzled by the assumption of nosological continuity between classical categories of madness and current ones that prevailed at the time among historians of medicine and psychiatry. Heiberg's text acts as a bridge or transition between the nosological antiquarianism of the 19th century and histories of psychiatry that later warned of the dangers of an anachronistic reading of earlier medical texts.

From Evolutive Paranoia, by August Wimmer (1902).

Literature on the history of 'paranoia' (as a clinical concept) is large and confusing. This is partly explained by the fact that over the centuries the word 'paranoia' has been made to participate in several convergences (clinical constructs), and hence it has named different forms of behaviour and been linked to different explanatory concepts. The Classic Text that follows provides information on the internal clinical evolution of the last convergence in which 'paranoia' was made to participate.

'Motility Psychoses', by Erik Strömgren (1940).

The motility psychoses are a group of acute psychiatric conditions characterized by salient disorders of movement (increased, decreased and disorganized), psychotic experiences, confusion and good prognosis. The debate on whether they are just atypical forms of schizophrenia or manic-depressive insanity or constitute an independent group of psychoses has not yet been settled. Erik Strömgren's classical chapter deals with the history and clinical aspects of the motility psychoses.

'The meaning of the symptom in psychiatry. An overview', by Hans W. Gruhle (1913): Introduction by Johan Schioldann and German Berrios: Translation by Johan Schioldann.

At the beginning of the 20th century there took place in German Psychiatry an important debate on the nature and relative importance of mental symptoms and diseases. Young psychiatrists such as Störring, Ziehen, Gaupp, Hoche, Jaspers and Gruhle challenged, from various perspectives, the nosology of established figures such as Kraepelin and Wernicke. The Classic Text is a commented translation of Gruhle's 1913 lecture on the meaning of mental symptoms.

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55): a bicentennial pathographical review.

Researchers in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, medicine and theology have made exhaustive efforts to shed light on the elusive biography/pathography of the great Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55). This 'bicentennial' article reviews his main pathographical diagnoses of, respectively, possible manic-depressive [bipolar] disease, epilepsy, complex partial seizure disorder, Landry-Guillain-Barré's acute ascending paralysis, acute intermittent porphyria with possible psychiatric manifestations, and syphilidophobia.

'Struensee's memoir on the situation of the King' (1772): Christian VII of Denmark.

Christian VII of Denmark (1749-1808) was insane throughout his long reign. The royal physician, Johann Friedrich Struensée (1737-72), usurped his power. In 1771 the King appointed him Privy Cabinet Minister.