ABSTRACT
It is customary, when discussing a psychiatric “illness,” to begin by giving an accurate description of the symptoms or the clinical picture. This usually means an account of observations of human behavior as it occurred under certain specified conditions, for example environment, characteristics of the population under study, methods of observation. Since the intent is to provide the foundation for all further assertions, it is imperative that maximal clarity be achieved in this initial stage. An accepted way of accomplishing this is to keep the observations as pure as possible, i.e., limited to verifiable perceptions uncontaminated by any prior assumptions. Teleological reasoning is especially to be avoided. The dominant approach in contemporary psychopathology thus follows what is customarily called the scientific or inductive method which establishes a hierarchy among the various assertions made in the course of the study of a phenomenon. In this hierarchy, the material labeled “observations” will occupy the highest place.
