[Criteriological evolution in psychopathology].

Abstract

Any theoretical direction in psychiatry takes into account a definition of the illness, and of the state of health and their limits, as well as the relationships between these two different states in their psychobehavioral expressiveness and within the relational system of personality. The states which are taken as deviations from what is generally considered and accepted as normal state, have always been identified and form the so-called major mental pathology, but one cannot ascertain the same thing about the so-called borderline states, and the representation of normality. It is also true that within the two international systems of classification, WHO and DSM-III one can find the difficulty and even the hesitation of using the term "mental illnesses" instead to use "mental disorders". These are the reasons that made the author consider useful the illustration of the diagnostic criterion through the classification of the concepts on mental illness--an evolution illustrated by the contribution of syndrome concepts, i.e. an anatomoclinical state according to the evolution of the symptoms, psychopathological criteria and generally the dimensional and categorical criteria. Thus, the criteriological investigation remains a theoretical actual approach and at the same time applicable for the psychiatric care.