Developmental Levels of Personality Organization

Developmental Levels of Personality Organization

I. Historical Context: Diagnosing Level of Character Pathology
- Pre 19th century psychiatry was defined simply as the sane vs. the insane.
Sane people agreed more or less what constituted reality; while insane people deviated from this consensus.
- People with hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorders were regarded as
insane. If you fell short of these symptoms then you were not considered completely insane. Today’s candidate for anti-social behavior was then judged as exhibiting “moral insanity,” however still deemed in touch with reality.

II. Kraepelinian Diagnosis: Neurosis Versus Psychoses
- Kraepelin is cited as “the father of contemporary diagnostic classification” in that he tried to identify the common symptoms in those that suffered from mental and emotional disturbances.
- Before the term “borderline” was developed, therapists followed Freud in differentiating between only two le...