ABSTRACT
Illnesses are often described as clusters of symptoms. The view taken is that a triaxial view enriches illness concepts and adds etiologic dynamics. The triaxial framework is shown to encompass and extend both paradigms. As well as enriching illness concepts, the triaxial framework is also shown to help orientate symptoms and be useful in disaster planning and research. Points on ripples represent particular symptoms and illnesses, and comorbid diagnoses involve other points on the same or similar ripples. Comorbid symptoms and illnesses may develop in parallel triaxial threads, falling into biopsychosocial clusters from related events. In summary, perhaps the phenomenological and dynamic and the linear and nonlinear trends in conceptualizing illnesses present since the ancient Greeks reflect natural biases. The triaxial framework appears to be a simple three-dimensional model, yet it provides a superordinate schema incorporating and adding to previous simple and complex views of illnesses.
