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Biomedical subjects

C Mundt

Publications and source records attributed to C Mundt.

71 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

A computed tomographic prolective trohoc study of chronic schizophrenics.

The maximal width of the third ventricle, the maximal distance between the outer tips of the anterior horns, and the number of enlarged cerebral sulci on the two highest CT slices were measured in 68 chronic schizophrenic patients on cranial computed tomograms in order to detect a possible enlargement of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) filled intracranial spaces. These results were compared with values obtained from a control group which was formed in accordance with definite exclusion criteria and matched-pair parameters (sex, age and maximal inner diameter of the skull). In a prolective trohoc study no difference was found in the size of the CSF spaces of schizophrenics and the controls. The psychopathological condition of the patients, which was classified in a semistandardized dialogue, also showed no correlation with the ventricular size or the number of enlarged cerebral sulci.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

[Development of the autonomy concept in psychoanalytic literature].

The development of an implicit concept of autonomy in Freud's work and the different explicit concepts of autonomy in neo-analysis and ego-psychology is delineated. The contradictory views of a strict psychic determinism and the utopia of freedom stand side by side in early psychoanalysis. They represent its scientific and romantic root. Neo-analysis puts a stress on the romantic tradition and elaborates a philosophical concept of autonomy, while modern ego-psychology follows rather the scientific tradition. All concepts of autonomy are based on a model of psychic health that is related to the idea of a harmonious personality, an ideal which has precursors in German classicism, the renaissance, and the antique.

Freedom↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The cycloid type and its differentiation from core schizophrenia: a phenomenological approach.

The heterogeneity within schizophrenia or the group of schizophrenias remains a vexing and limiting problem. An alternative to the "classic" explanatory construct of a schizophrenic unitary psychosis is the current concept of a positive/negative dichotomy with or without mixed type. However, the validation by findings from brain imaging, specificity, and prognostic validity of these multiple-entity approaches are still uncertain. Psychopathology is challenged to identify discrete types as homogenous as possible, providing closer relationship to distinct disease processes. Such types are to be defined by one or more axial syndromes, syndromes in an essential, not correlative, sense. One of these types is embraced by the term cycloid psychosis, implying a good prognosis. Using an integrative phenomenological methodology, the present study is able to show the specific quality of phenomena occurring in this type to pinpoint their "inner" relationships and to demonstrate cycloid syndromes as axial syndromes in the phenomenological sense. Thus, it is shown that positive symptoms in the cycloid type are different from those in core schizophrenia. In addition to the quality and inner coherence of the constituent elements, the absence of structural deformations of (1) emotional expression and affect, (2) thought, and (3) movement impulses and sequences is the decisive specificity feature that allows differentiation of the cycloid type from poor-prognosis core schizophrenia. These syndromes of structural deformations are the axial syndromes of core schizophrenia, occurring with or without "productive" (positive) phenomena. Its conceptualization makes a contribution to the actual negative-symptom discussion shifting the perspective from a low specific level (e.g., abulia) to phenomena of higher specificity. On the basis of a precise definition of cycloid axial syndromes, previous operationalization suggestions are reviewed and evaluated, and an alternative approach is outlined. Finally, it is hypothesized that the cycloid type may be a primary neurotransmitter disease, while core schizophrenia seems closer to the pathophysiological mechanisms described in Stevens' theory.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The hysterical personality disorder: a phenomenological approach.

The background of the present study is a general uncertainty as to what comprises the essence of hysterical (histrionic) personality disorder. Using phenomenological methodology, phenomena observable in the 'classic' hysterical personality are analysed, described, named, and classified according to the basic functions of human experience and behaviour. The resulting psychopathological picture of the hysterical personality facilitates a differential diagnosis that is often decidedly difficult. The phenomenon of dissociation of the mental processes is demonstrated for the various basic functions. A specific feature of the disorder is shown which generates a dissociation of contents of the personality along a conscious-preconscious-unconscious continuum. It is concluded that dissocation is, in the final analysis, the prerequisite for a compromised and partial acting out of prohibited non-integrated elements, e.g. aggression, as a coping strategy.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sampling biases in a marital study on severe major depression.

A comparison was carried out between participants and refusers to participate in a 2-year prospective follow-up study of major depression. 88 consecutively admitted patients of the Psychiatric University Hospital Heidelberg had been addressed. All of them fulfilled both the ICD-9 criteria for Endogenous Depression and the DSM-III-R criteria for Major Depression according to SCID. 38 patients declined participation. Participants and refusers were compared with regard to 56 items of psychopathological symptomatology, socio-demographic data, quality of marital relationship, and personality features. The information about these items was taken systematically from the medical records both of participants and refusers. For some items methods of content analysis were applied to the case histories. Only few differences between participants and refusers were found. Women and more severely ill patients were less willing to accept participation. The degree of marital problems did not differentiate between consenters and refusers.

Adult↗