Kandinsky graduated from
Moscow Imperial University Medical School in 1872 and began his career as a
general practitioner in a hospital in Moscow. In 1877, while serving as a military physician during the
Russo-Turkish War, he began experiencing mood swings and hallucinations. He was medically discharged on 13 May 1877 and admitted to a naval hospital for treatment. but he self-identified his condition as primäre Verrücktheit (German for "primary paranoid psychosis"), which is anachronistically associated with modern concepts of
schizophrenia-like disorders. Contemporary psychiatrists diagnose him with
paranoid schizophrenia. By 1879, he returned to Moscow. Kandinsky joined the St. Petersburg Psychiatric Association on 23 January 1882. In 1885, he published a German-language book titled "
Kritische und klinische Betrachtungen im Gebiete der Sinnestäuschungen" (Critical and Clinical Considerations in the Area of Hallucinations), detailing his personal experiences with
pseudohallucinations. His last written words were: "1) I had about n grams of opium… 2) I'm reading '
The Cossacks' by Tolstoy… 3) It is becoming difficult for me to read…" (). He died as a patient at the institution he had previously run as medical superintendent, the St. Nicholas Asylum in Saint Petersburg. His wife, Elizaveta Freimut-Kandinsky, later arranged for the posthumous publication of his scientific works, including "On Pseudohallucinations" and "On Irresponsibility," before taking her own life. == Scientific contribution ==