Historical Roots of Psychopathology

Book excerpt: New advances of the neuroscience supported by a refined, reliable and valid phenotyping (e.g., at the level of symptoms and not at the level of disorders), are bringing some promising results. The mapping of clinical phenomenology on specific brain dysfunction is now becoming plausible and the resulting functional psychopathology may in the future significantly replace the present nosology (Jablensky, 2010). Nevertheless, as Andreasen (2007) points out: “Applying technology without companionship of wise clinicians with specific expertise in psychopathology will be a lonely, sterile and perhaps fruitless enterprise.” Some of the chapters of this Ebook deal with aspects which are essential to the historical understanding of mental symptoms and disorders.