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An Alternative to Diagnostic Classification

FREDERICK H. KANFER, PhD; GEORGE SASLOW, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1965;12(6):529-538.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

DURING the past decade attacks on conventional psychiatric diagnosis have been so widespread that many clinicians now use diagnostic labels sparingly and apologetically. The continued adherence to the nosological terms of the traditional classificatory scheme suggests some utility of the present categorization of behavior disorders, despite its apparently low reliability^1,21; its limited prognostic value^7,26; and its multiple feebly related assumptive supports. In a recent study of this problem, the symptom patterns of carefully diagnosed paranoid schizophrenics were compared. Katz et al¹² found considerable divergence among patients with the same diagnosis and concluded that "diagnostic systems which are more circumscribed in their intent, for example, based on manifest behavior alone, rather than systems which attempt to comprehend etiology, symptom patterns and prognosis, may be more directly applicable to current problems in psychiatric research" (p202).

We propose here to examine some . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
PORTLAND, ORE

From the University of Oregon Medical School.

Reprint requests to 3181 SW Sam Jackson Pk Rd, Portland, Ore 97201 (Dr. Saslow).

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Oct 9, 1964.

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