British Phenomenological and Psychopathological Concepts: A Comparative Review

Abstract

For a foreign observer who has been trained in German and French psychopathology, British psychiatry is very attractive at first glance for a number of reasons. Its eclectic and principally non-theoretical approach (Cooper, 1975), characterized by an open acceptance of foreign concepts and by the tendency to question traditional structures and hypotheses and to test them by means of statistical methods, appears most impressive. The substantial contribution British authors have made toward the development of structured tools in psychopathology, like for instance the Present State Examination or the Hamilton Rating Scale in order to facilitate such a statistical evaluation, which reflects clearly the inheritance of Sir Francis Galton, is also a cause of sincere admiration. The European observer realizes furthermore that the British approach is rooted mainly in continental, especially in German, clinical psychiatry, and is not as heavily influenced by psychodynamic theories as, for instance, the American schools were, at least until recently. This provides him with a comfortable feeling of familiarity and he is not inclined to question certain British tenets until his involvement progresses and he becomes aware of the comparative lack of attention paid by British schools to some of the fundamentals of continental psychopathology.