Psychopathological Symptoms
Introduction
Carlos Morra and Ernst Franzek

         During the early years of the 20th century the use of the term “Psychopathology” became restricted to the discipline that deals with the identification, description and conceptualization of symptoms and signs, which occur in patients with psychiatric disorders.

         Despite attempts to develop biomarkers for psychiatric disease, psychopathological symptoms remained the elementary units of diagnostic concepts in all classifications of mental illness.

         There are differences in the diagnostic formulation of psychiatric disorders in the different classifications of mental illness and to derive even to the same diagnostic label may require in different classifications the evaluation of the  presence or absence of a  different set of psychopathological symptoms.  The objective of this course is to provide the necessary knowledge for diagnosing psychiatric patients in different classifications mental illness and to delineate the psychopathological symptom profile of psychiatric patients regardless of their diagnostic label.

         The course is based on a comprehensive collection of psychopathological symptoms derived by the deconstruction of diagnoses from numerous classifications of mental illness. Each psychopathological symptom is presented in the form of a standardized vignette that includes a definition of the symptom and information on how the presence of the symptom is determined. So we kindly request your collaboration in the form of comments or questions that will be posted and eventually included in an e-book on “psychopathology”.

We are looking forward to working with you on this project.

Carlos Morra & Ernst Franzek

September 1, 2016