Lexical Study Of Mental Disorder

In order to deal with mental disorders' problems, psychotherapists have to do the first thing that they should diagnose these problems correctly, and diagnosis is the process to classify them, therefore, classification is the essence of diagnosis.At present, DSM-IV and ICD-10 are the most perfect diagnostic systems of mental disorders used widespread. However, the two diagnostic systems lay particular stress on serious mental diseases and ignore the middle states between mental healthy condition and serious mental disease, unquestionably, narrowing the extension of mental disorder. In the fact, there are continuous states between them, and Their bounds usually are indistinct; this brings the two diagnostic -systems many difficulties and limits their using range. Meanwhile, lexical study of psychology has been applied widely and the achievement is elegant, but such study is mainly limited in researches of personality, especially of normal personality, rarely involving personal disorders or mental disorders.In view of such conditions, this article explains mental disorder putting it in the continuous states between mental health and mental disease on the basis of traditional Chinese medicine, and researches mental disorders with the method of lexical study. Using the classifying method of traditional Chinese medicine and the classifying method of hierarchical cluster, this article classifies 304 words. It shows no perfect difference between the result of classification of traditional Chinese medicine and the result of hierarchical cluster. It proves that it is not accidental or fabricated at will to abstract and generalize all kinds of particular mental disorders as five elements with the method of analogy of traditional Chinese medicine. On the contrary, it objectively reflects the inherent traits and laws of mental disorderand implicates the essence of science. It also indicates that it is feasible to construct a new diagnostic system in a new field of vision not alike DSM-IV and ICD-10 according to traditional Chinese medicine.As a result, this article constructs a new diagnostic System of mental disorders on the basic of traditional Chinese medicine, named quadrant-mathematical model of diagnosing mental disorders, and analyses its fundamental principles, component parts and primary features. For using the theory and method of traditional Chinese medicine to diagnose and treat mental disorders, the significance of this model is self-evident.