Psychoanalytic Diagnosis 4- The Psychoanalytic Levels

  A second type of therapy is known as psychodynamic/psychoanalytic therapy. This is the type tberapy I do. When the therapist is making a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic diagnosis of the patient's underlying problems, they look deeply into the client's early childhood experiences and how those experiences have affected their development. Depending on their age, developmental level, and severity of their childhood difficulties, the patient may develop one of the three following levels of disorders. Although the DSM mentioned earlier has many many categories of mental health disorders listed by symptoms, the PDM ( The Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual in the picture above) states that all the disorders can be broadly categorized under these three levels. These levels are Neurotic Level Disorders, Narcissitic/Borderline Disorders, and Psychotic Disorders. Neurotic level patients are rather high functioning folks. Narcissistic/Borderline level patients, however, are quite ill, and Psychotic patients are severely disturbed. Neurotic may have experienced internal and/or external conflicts later in childhood around the ages of 3-6 years old. Narcissistic/Borderline level patients may have experienced such conflicts at the earlier age of 2-3 years old. Psychotic patients may have experienced such conflicts in infancy and these may have been complicated by inherited brain illnesses.

1David Moore