[The Korsakoff concept of Karl Bonhoeffer and its relation to the psychometrics of amnestic disorders].

Abstract

Karl Bonhoeffer set great value on the precise description of psychopathological findings, and was the first to stress the very close relationship between Wernicke's encephalopathy and Korsakoff's psychosis. Proof of mnestic deficiency is still today very important in the exact analysis of chronic symptomatic psychoses. Knowledge acquired in neuropsychology must be incorporated into psychopathometry to enable a more exact analysis of chronic cerebral psychosyndromes. The paper presents a new test to measure mnestic deficiency, suitable for the examination of patients with pseudoneurasthenic syndromes, organic change of personality, or mild early forms of dementia.