The Idea of Psychogenesis in Modern Psychiatry and in Psychoanalysis*

By “psychogenesis” we understand a causal chain of psychic phenomena only. The concept of psychogenesis emphasizes the imminent causality of all psychic processes as for instance the explanation of a character quality as a result of episodes, experiences, environmental factors or the proof of their dependency of other qualities and peculiarities of the personality. Of course it is not meant that the psyche is an independent entity as we know that psychic and organic form a unity. The psyche is a function of the organism. The mutual relationship between soul and body is without question for the natural scientist.

Rarely can the psychogenic explanation of a phenomenon be obtained in its pure nature. Somewhere in the causal chain one will always find moments, conditions that are not purely psychological. Nevertheless psychogenic attempts at explanation can be characterized as causalgenetic chains in which every psychical phenomenon is the result of a chain of other psychical phenomena. There is nothing psychical without a somatic basis. The proof of pure psychogenetic causal chains may be difficult because in real life the somatic and psychical causal chains are often overlapping. In spite of this the definition of psychogenesis as an imminent causality of the psychical processes is correct because as soon as the psychical functions have become differentiated, the summary of the psychical functions may become independent and lead to the possibility of imminent psychical causal chains. This fact is the basis for the existence of psychopathol-tigy as a scientific discipline. The possibility of a differentiation of the psychical processes is often hesitatingly accepted in psychiatry. In an epoch when medical science owes her great progress to biochemistry it can be well understood that psychiatrists content themselves with psychological explanations with a feeling of embarrassment. Psychology is not yet recognized as a serious science and psychological explanations in psyc