PSYCHIATRY AND THE NOBEL PRIZE: EMIL KRAEPELIN’S NOBELIBILITY
PSYCHIATRY AND THE NOBEL PRIZE: EMIL KRAEPELIN’S NOBELIBILITY

Summary/Abstract: This paper gives an overview of runner-up candidates in the field of psychiatry for the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine and provides a detailed account of the Nobel Prize nominations for Emil Kraepelin. Kraepelin was nominated for the Nobel Prize on at least eight occasions from 1909 to 1926. Among the sponsors, we find psychiatrists and neurologists such as Robert Gaupp, Ernst Meyer, Eugen Bleuler, Oswald Bumke, Giovanni Mingazzini, and Wilhelm Weygandt. Portraying Kraepelin as a Nestor of psychiatry, the nominators meant that his work was of theoretical importance and that they also liberated the way for new areas of research. However, the proposals remained half-hearted and lacked clear practical results or solid evidence, which in the end weakened Kraepelin’s Nobelibility, i.e. his eligibility for the award.

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