Kandinskii, Viktor

Born Apr 6 (18), 1849, in Nerchinsk Raion, in what is now Chita Oblast; died Aug. 3 (15), 1899, in St. Petersburg. Russian psychiatrist.

Kandinskii graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University in 1872. From 1882 until his death he served as senior staff physician in the St. Nicholas Mental Hospital in St. Petersburg (now the Second Mental Hospital). Kandinskii was the first to provide the classic definition of pseudohallucinations as a special symptom of mental illness (1885). His studies laid the foundation for the theory of the “syndrome of mental automatism.” He was the first in Russian medicine to substantiate the concept of psychopathies, and he pointed out several symptoms of schizophrenia. He was also the first in Russia to propose a classification of mental illnesses and to advocate the use of occupational therapy in the treatment of psychoses. He worked on some problems in forensic psychiatry, defining the criteria of lack of criminal capacity and describing the symptoms of exceptional states. Kandinskii also wrote several philosophical works.