ABSTRACT
In the past two or three decades there has been a significant, far-reaching change in the fundamental philosophy underlying medical thinking. Virchow’s static pathology of individual cells and organs has given way to the study of the pathophysiology of the living organism and the interrelationship of organ systems. Mental health, psychopathy, and psychosis can be understood as expressions of varying quantitative aspects of this interrelationship, which at certain crucial levels result in qualitative changes. In the field of mental disorders, mesoforms are encountered in the frequent borderline cases in which one is hard put to make a definite commitment as to whether an individual is normal, neurotic, or psychotic. The various forms of mental disorder merge into one another by an infinite series of gradations.
