Outlines of Psychiatry - no. 1 Author:William Alanson White Volume: no. 1 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1912 Original Publisher: The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co. Subjects: Mental illness Law / Mental Health Medical / Neurology Medical / Psychiatry / General Psychology / Mental Illness Psychology / Psychopathology / General Notes: Thi... more »s is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. Classification Of Mental Disorders. When we come to the question of the classification of the different psychoses, we find a condition of affairs which leaves much to be desired. Almost every author of note has put forth his own separate classification and we are treated to all kinds from the simplest comprising only three or four groups to the most complex comprising forty or fifty or even more. The problem of classification has been approached from every side: the psychological, the pathological, the etiological, and the clinical, and while some authors adhere to one point of view the majority do not, but offer a classification based on all four considerations. This latter position is practically necessary as there are types which lend themselves only to classification from one of these standpoints and find no classification on any other basis. As a matter of fact our knowledge of the psychoses is altogether too limited at present to justify the expectation that the problem of classification can be solved. Any attempt at grouping mental disorders under separate heads must at present be but tentative and incomplete. The author will not attempt to offer any scheme of classification but in the various chapters of this work will discuss the forms of mental disorder which are generally acknowledged to exist and while endeavoring to give a cl...« less