[Conrad Ferdinand Meyer reflected in the paradigm change in German psychiatry]

German-speaking psychiatrists had a great interest in the Swiss poet and writer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-1898)-even after his death. Meyer was hospitalised twice for major depression with psychotic features. For many years of his life he showed a chronic depressive disorder. We would diagnose a dysthymic disorder with comorbid recurrent major depressive disorder with psychotic features according to DSM-IV or ICD-10. After Meyer had lived isolated for many years and had hardly left his house, he reached public recognition and found his "profession" only at the age of 40. Different pathographic publications (amongst others Möbius, Hellpach, Sadger, Lang, Jung) on Meyer in the early 20th century reflect the debate over both Kraepelin's theories and psychoanalysis. In these publications the scientific argument was often more important than Meyer's biography. Two topics play an important role in these discussions: the differences between idiographic and nomothetic method, and the question, where the border between "personality variation" and "illness" lies.