[Stagnation in psychopathology]

Compared with somatic medicine, there has been very little progress in psychopathology since the turn of the century. In an attempt to determine why, the author makes a critical assessment of several methods used in psychiatric research: the observation and interpretation of behavior, the formulation of hypotheses and experimental research. It becomes evident that researchers are still usually willing to work with psychological terms that are poorly defined. Progress can probably be expected when human behavior is clearly recognized as being the result of the interaction of many different types of capabilities.