ABSTRACT
A good diagnostic system is a set of coordinate axes with respect to which it is possible to plot behaviour. The diagnostic constructs of preverbal constructs, submergence, and suspension all represent relatively low levels of cognitive awareness. The phenomena which are popularly identified as ‘forgetting’, ‘dissociation’, and ‘repression’ can all be handled within the theoretical framework of the psychology of personal constructs in much the same way. A comprehensive construct is likely to be one which has been in use a long time, although, in certain cases—some manics, for example—there is a dilation which sometimes appears to bring forth a matrix of comprehensive constructs in a relatively short time. A construct is construed as superordinate to another if the other is utilized as one of its contextual elements. A construct is construed as subordinate to another if it appears as one of the elements in the other’s context.
