[Pathogenetic model-theories of endogenous psychoses (author's transl)]

The multiplicity of frequently conflicting views in the psychiatry of today inspires the wish for a uniform way thinking about the thorough knowledge and the many hypotheses that have become almost boundlessly vast. Such ideas of models as have played a part for quite some time in the mathematical and natural sciences, and of late in the sociology, are also to be found in the field of psychiatry, without however always being called so expressis verbis. Guided by the historical development an attempt has been made to expose model-like ideas about the etiology and pathogenesis of endogenic psychoses, first of all of schizophrenia, as they have become decisive for modern psychiatry. It appears that in the abbreviation of the "model" the basis for a discussion already overdue is to be found.