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In mental diseases we are confronted with abnormal psychic states, often manifested by symptoms significant of beliefs apparently unfounded, obviously false, totally incompatible with simple reason and common experience, and which moreover, are maintained in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
In the field of mental development, Psychopathology claims that much of the workings of the primitive instincts are carried out below the level of conscious thought, and that within the silent depths of the unconscious, the powerful driving forces of the primitive urge are frequently engaged in fierce and bitter conflict. Not only is this true of psychotic states, but it holds good in the workings of the normal mind, a fact to which the behavioristic attitude of the individual often bears mute, but expressive evidence.
The life of every individual is like an ever-changing picture, the beauty, or horror of which, is gauged according as the individual's behavior meets or falls below the recognized standards of Society. In this respect, therefore, each individual paints his own picture, and it is a matter of common knowledge, that the materials from which the colors are selected, and the background upon which are registered the conceptions of the painter's genius, are of first rate importance in making or marring the excellence of the finished work of art.
Through the eye of Psychopathology we are enabled to see in the behavioristic attitude of an individual, a picture of the reaction to a given situation, and behind this reaction, careful and patient search will reveal a personality make-up, as well as present and past environmental influences which constitute the colors and the background to the picture before us. It is true that within the field of Medical Science, Psychopathology undertakes a description, and a grouping of abnormal mental or psychic states according to their clinical pictures, but were this the end, then it could not deserve a place among the Science