Psyclops: an exploratory graphical system for clinical research and education

We present Psyclops, an interactive computer graphic system designed to help address a growing information dilemma in the examination of individual psychiatric cases. Ever more information is needed to better understand conscious experience, interpersonal behavior, and the formation of psychiatric signs and symptoms, yet the information load already exceeds our usual methods of handling it. Psyclops consists of a suite of software modules, manual sections, and standards that have been developed according to guiding concepts intended to help one collect, organize, access, and explore complex data about a single subject for research, education, and ultimately, clinical care purposes. This document provides background in clinical information science and a description of the system; the reader interested in its application in clinical research theory development is referred to the companion paper in this issue (Horowitz et al., Pathological Grief: An Intensive Case Study).