Psychopathology: an edgeless razor?

The declining value of schneiderian first-rank symptoms (FRS) in differentiating between the two major functional psychoses has raised questions as to the utility of psychopathological concepts. In current diagnostic systems such as DSMs, psychopathological criteria and chiefly schneiderian symptoms have been used for nosographical purposes. It must be clear that this nosographically oriented use of psychopathology is only one aspect of the psychopathological enterprise. Indeed, while clinical psychopathology is essentially aimed at the identification of symptoms that are significant in view of nosographical distinctions, the specificendeavor of general psychopathology might be conceived as the organization of internal experiences around a core of meaningfulness, regardless of nosographical attributions. We seek to legitimate the value of psychopathological investigation and concepts as independent from any nosographical concern, and propose the concept of "psychopathological organizers" as synthesizing schemes of comprehension aimed at connecting different pathological experiences into unitary cores of meaningfulness.