ABSTRACT
Functional abnormality has to be judged by the criterion of adaptation, and adaptation, when examined more closely, resolves into partially independent criteria of adjustment, adaptation and integration. The neurotic, the psychotic and the delinquent, by the criterion of adaptation, are abnormal, and hence the focus of psychology' study. Incidentally, one must distinguish clearly between ergic regression and regression of the total personality. Many instances are recorded, clinically and experimentally, of regression of total behaviour, as when a grown man insists upon crawling on all fours, talking in baby talk and forgetting his adult skills and personality. Clinical psychologists noted quite early in psycho-analytic history that the neurotic reacts with a certain immaturity and that his conflicts are not with the errant drives ordinarily stimulated and suppressed in adult life. Schizophrenics typically have a pre-psychotic history of being very obedient, ‘model’ children, unduly dependent on an older person.
