[Attempt at a classification of manic-depressive disease course a communications pathology principle]

Delusion, attempted suicide and suicide are represented as phenomena of pathological communication by means of system theory. On this basis the longitudinal observation and treatment of 158 syntonically delusive manic depressives is reported and classified. Here five typical courses of illness can be formulated in terms of communication pathology. The consequences which follow directly from this seem to be of particular interest for therapeutic measures in social psychiatry.