SummaryThe modern conceptualization of paranoia depends largely on the work of Emil Kraepelin. After him, German psychiatry concentrated on detailed descriptions of psychopathology in paranoid states, but there were few diagnostic or therapeutic advances till lately. A revival of interest is apparent, but this may be stultified by inaccurate criteria for paranoid disorders in DSM III, whose influence, at least in North America, appears assured for a considerable time.