Abstract
The present study examined the evolution of the diagnostic criteria from the early writings of Sigmund Freud to the current DSM-IV. Freud's original model of neurosis, known as Seduction Theory, was a post-traumatic paradigm which placed emphasis on external stressor events. In 1897, due to a confluence of factors, he shifted his paradigm to stress intrapsychic fantasy as the focus of analytic treatment for traumatic neurosis. Freud's thinking influenced both the DSM-I and II classification of stress response syndromes as transient reactive processes. However, it is evident from his lectures in 1917–1918 that he understood the interrelatedness of what today is the four diagnostic categories in the DSM-IV.
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Wilson, J.P. The historical evolution of PTSD diagnostic criteria: From freud to DSM-IV. J Trauma Stress 7, 681–698 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02103015
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02103015