Taxonomic subgroups within psychosomatic disease entities: an alternative strategy to the specificity approach?

There are empirical indications that the well-known weaknesses of the different psychosomatic specificity theorems are linked to their presupposition of a one-to-one relationship between one specific psychosocial configuration and one definite disease entity. An alternative conceptualization is offered: The majority of the psychosocial phenomena found within a definite disease entity fall into a small group of perhaps half a dozen different patterns. Only a minority of cases show a high variation with many different patterns - some even individually unique. This alternative concept demands different research strategies and methods which are provided by taxometrics. This is illustrated with examples from a follow-up study of anorexia nervosa.