You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This very ambitious and, to a large degree, successful initial effort by a collaboration of psychoanalytic organizations of the major disciplines aims to move the process of diagnosis to a different plane. To quote from its introduction:
The PDM adds a needed perspective to existing diagnostic systems. In addition to considering symptom patterns described in existing taxonomies, it enables clinicians to describe and categorize personality patterns, related social and emotional capacities, unique mental profiles, and personal experiences of symptoms. It provides a framework for improving comprehensive treatment approaches and understanding both the biological and psychological origins of mental health and illness. (p. 2)
The book is divided into three parts: Part I— Classification of Adult Mental Health Disorders; Part II—Classification of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Disorders; and Part III—Conceptual and Research Foundations for a Psychodynamically Based Classification System for Mental Health Disorders. The authors begin with the necessity of defining healthy mental functioning, so as to have a measure to which pathological states can be compared and quantified. They emphasize the importance of assessing “an individual's full range of feelings and thoughts (personal experience) in the context of his or her unique history” (p. 6). They suggest that a psychodynamic diagnosis entails an assessment from healthy to severely pathological on three dimensions: personality patterns and disorders—the P Axis, mental functioning—the M Axis, and manifest symptoms and concerns—the S Axis. They state: “Our taxonomy is geared toward one central purpose of individualized case formulation and treatment planning for psychoanalytic