[A medical-anthropological model of psychiatric illness (author's transl)]

Consideration of the present treatment of psychiatric illness, along with the epistemological restraints for a valid model of psychiatric illness, has led to the proposal of a medical-anthropological model, which is derived from the unity of normal and abnormal behavior in specific situations and general environments and provides a scheme of "medical anthropopsychiatry". The proposed model is multidimensional (biological, psychological, and sociohistorical-cultural parameters are combined synchronously and diachronously) and aims to bring together functional and structural data of both the healthy and the disturbed personality in their entirety. It is an open model that attempts to establish the dialectic convergence of the phenomena in dynamics and structure in an integrative and comprehensive manner. It considers the complexity of their interactions on different levels. A distinction is drawn between: (1) general disruptions of the personality and its dynamic compensations with respect to mental equilibrium and (2) the basic structures underlying psychopathology and their reconstruction gradients. On that basis a pathogenetical scheme is proposed that should explain, synchronously and diachronously, the entirety of dynamical and structural components, with regard to pathogenic processes as well as therapeutic efficacy. Motivating situations and their relevance for mental health have also been considered in the model along with their etiopathogenic causes and possibilities for compensation. The applicability of the model for diagnosis, therapy, and prophylaxis is also discussed in relation to the personal history of the individual patients.