PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

I Houben

Publications and source records attributed to I Houben.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

[Hypnogogic hallucinations of macrosomatognosia and microsomatognosia].

Macrosomatognosia and microsomatognosia, in which the entire body or parts of the body are perceived as abnormally large or small, can occur as hypnagogic hallucinations in sane and healthy subjects. A review of the literature and five original observations are presented. The mouth and the hands are anatomic regions which are frequently affected, paralleling the dominance of their representation in the sensory maps of the human brain. The clinical differential diagnosis of the said phenomena includes narcolepsy, epileptic and migraine aura, drug-induced body schema disturbances and basic symptoms of functional psychoses.

Adult↗

Personality disorders: conceptual issues and responsibility.

The historical roots of the concepts of abnormal personality, social deviance, delinquency and penal responsibility are described, demonstrating that former concepts of psychopathic personality often included negative social evaluations. Modern classification systems such as DSM-III-R and ICD-10 prefer a behavior-oriented definition of personality disorders, which increases reliability but may lead to a reductionistic and purely criteriological assessment of personality. A checklist for the assessment of personality disorders (AMPS) according to ICD-10 and DSM-III-R is presented, including four subaffective forms derived from the typology of personality disorders described by Kurt Schneider and Kretschmer. To justify statements of diminished legal responsibility or irresponsibility under the German Penal Code, a differentiation between psychopathological phenomena in personality disorders and pure social deviance is needed. The three notions of psychopathy, sociopathy and dissocial behavior are suggested to guide necessary decisions concerning prognosis and therapy chances.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗