Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jul;186(5):279-288.
doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32870. Epub 2021 Aug 20.

Ernst Rüdin's, 1911 vision of a Mendelian psychiatric genetics research program: His paper "Methods and goals of family research in psychiatry"

Kenneth S Kendler  1
Affiliations
Review

Ernst Rüdin's, 1911 vision of a Mendelian psychiatric genetics research program: His paper "Methods and goals of family research in psychiatry"

Kenneth S Kendler. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

While working under Kraepelin in Munich, Ernst Rüdin, a Swiss-born Psychiatrist, at the age of 26, outlined in a 1911 98-page article, a detailed plan for a future Mendelian-informed family research program for psychiatry. Rüdin would go on to head the Department of Genealogical and Demographic Studies at Kraepelin's Research Institute which became one of the world's leading programs in psychiatric genetics. I here summarize this article, providing a complete translation online. Rüdin's review outlined a paradigm shift in psychiatric genetics research moving from calculations of aggregate hereditary burden, as they applied to the proband, to examining patterns of transmission within family pedigrees which involved careful individual assessments of relatives. He references widely clinical and statistical genetic studies, many focusing on the newly discovered Mendelian laws. However, Rüdin was no genetic reductionist but recognized the contribution of environmental risk factors to psychiatric illness arguing that they should be studied as part of a comprehensive research program. As a committed eugenicist, Rüdin also explored the implications of such a program for "racial hygiene." Rüdin's contributions should be viewed in the context of his extensive collaboration from 1933 to 1945 with the National Socialists and his support for their eugenics program, including involuntary sterilizations.

Keywords: Ernst Rüdin; Mendelian genetics; history; psychiatric genetics.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Cannon, G. L., & Rosanoff, A. (1911). Preliminary report of a study of heredity in insanity in the light of the Mendelian laws. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 38(5), 272-279.
    1. Caplan, A. L. (1993). How should science handle data from unethical research? Journal of the National Institutes of Health Research, 5, 22-24.
    1. Davenport, C. B. (1915a). The feebly inhibited: I. Violent temper and its inheritance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science U. S. A, 1(1), 37-38. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1.1.37
    1. Davenport, C. B. (1915b). The feebly inhibited: II. Nomadism or the wandering impulse with special reference to heredity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science U. S. A, 1(2), 120-122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1.2.120
    1. Diem, O. (1905). Die psycho-neurotische erbliche Belastung der Geistesgesunden und der Geisteskranken: Eine statistisch-kritische Untersuchung auf Grund eigener Beobachtungen. Germany: Archiv-Gesellschaft.

LinkOut - more resources