A preliminary study derived from a biography, nine of seventeen or eighteen published works, and other material related to the lifework and character of the father of Daniel Paul Schreber is presented. It yields a number of facts that permit partial reconstruction of certain childhood influences and later events in the life of the author of the Denkwürdigkeiten which became

part of his delusional system. It also makes clear the source of some of the hitherto obscure passages in the son's record of his psychotic delusions.