The importance of the type concept in psychiatry

Abstract

The significance of the typological approach in psychiatry, which has been partly forgotten and partly considered to be outdated at present, is discussed. It follows from considerations of terminology and the critique of knowledge that on the basis of its taxonomic function logically and unambiguously determined by Hempel and in particular by Oppenheim, type, in contrast to class, is capable of categorizing majorities with blurred dividing lines. It was in this function that the concept of type entered psychology through W. Stern as a means of systematically categorizing the multiplicity of psychological varieties in different groups of persons, whereby the polar definition of the type concept as developed by Krueger and Wellek in genetic holistic psychology proved to be taxonomically effective. Type gained significance in psychiatry as polarity, in particular in the framework of research into constitution and psychopathy. Anglo-Saxon criticism of the concept of type and the evident differences between American DSM psychiatry and the German concept of type are examined. The current methods of typological research in psychiatry have been developed in the preceding thirty years mainly by Zerssen and his team using modern uni- and multivariate statistical methods and successfully applying them. As a result, it was possible to objectify in several studies in the meantime Tellenbach's typus melancholicus, the typus manicus (v. Zerssen), as well as the typus migraenicus (Peters) as premorbid personality types. In addition, a circular typology of personality variants is beginning to emerge ever more clearly in the latest studies on the basis of which it may be possible to identify individual personality disorders typologically.