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Childhood Psychosis: A Historical Review

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Disordered Thinking and Communication in Children

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Abstract

The official glossary of the American Psychiatric Association defines psychosis as “a major mental disorder of organic or emotional origin in which the individual’s ability to think, respond emotionally, remember, communicate, interpret reality and behave appropriately is sufficiently impaired so as to interfere grossly with his capacity to meet the ordinary demands of life.” According to this definition, the severity and pervasiveness of the impairment are the two key features of the clinical diagnosis. However, it must be noted that in order to designate any function as deviant or impaired the range and fluctuation of its normal operation must be clearly defined. Also, “the ordinary demands of life,” against which the individual’s shortcomings are to be judged, need to have identifiable criteria. The official classificatory scheme is silent on both of these accounts. Diagnosticians differ in their assessment of the degree of impairment due to their sociocultural expectations of the normative behavior, professional training, philosophical bent or their personal life history.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York Medical College, New York, New York, USA

    Mahin Hassibi

  2. New York University Medical School, New York, New York, USA

    Harry Breuer Jr.

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  1. Mahin Hassibi
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  2. Harry Breuer Jr.
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© 1980 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Hassibi, M., Breuer, H. (1980). Childhood Psychosis: A Historical Review. In: Disordered Thinking and Communication in Children. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2186-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2186-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-2188-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-2186-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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