Am J Psychiatry 1984; 141:1208-1211
Copyright © 1984 by American Psychiatric Association
The need for tests of normal functioning in the psychiatric interview
LL Havens
Physical medicine has a body of normal findings that make possible the
definition of disease states. The routine procedures of psychiatry do not
include any such tests of health. As a result, the psychiatric concept of
illness has no stable base from which specific conditions can be described.
The author suggests two human capacities, connectedness and
self-protectiveness, that can be assessed by the psychiatrist in attempting
to evaluate the patient's overall psychological health.
