P0077 - Towards a “Riemann' turn” in the theory of psychopathology

Abstract

Background:

In the mid 19th century 'Euclidian Geometry'found itself replaced by a group of previously unimaginable spheres: the "Riemann' Geometries". Only this radical shift of paradigm from the obviousness of concrete practice into the abstract worlds of relational and symbolic order allowed Einstein's and Maxwell's theories to emerge and modern mathematics to be developed.

Psychopathology is in urgent need of a comparable turn - beyond the narrow field of clinical observation towards a theory of 'mental formation' - only from which a concept of mental illness can be deducted.

Method:

The presentation reconstructs an interdisciplinary network towards a "New Psychopathology", including Kurt Goldstein, Arthur Kronfeld and Kurt Lewin, relocating psychopathological observation away from the brain to the relational order between the individual and its environment. Their joint theoretial approach was based on Ernst Cassirer's "Philosophy of Symbolic Forms", applying the ideas of change in mathematival perspectives to mental complexity and cultural development - and: its pathological disorders.

Results:

"Symbolic Forms" emerge as magic, myth, language, religion, law, politics, science, the arts and others. They are transcultural universal phenomena which can be seen as "invariants" in a "Matrix of Mental Formation".This cultural construct breaks down in mental crisis.

Conclusion:

Psychiatric illness is always connected to a breakdown of "Symbolic Formation". Its typical symptoms are not a lack of organic function - but derive from an inability to manage its complex 'meanings'in the constant change of parallel frames of reference. A structural concept(MATRIX) is presented as an underlying relational order to psychopathological classification.