STRUCTURE AND STRUCTURAL DISORDER

One of the central tasks of psychodynamic diagnosis, next to determini ng intrapsychic conflicts, central relational patterns, and subjective forms of experiencing is assessing the psychic structure or the struc tural disorder. This article develops the structure term from object r elationship theoretical, ego-psychological, and self-psychological con cepts of psychoanalysis. This ''Structure of the self in the relations hip to others'' thus obtained is described with six structural criteri a (self-perception, self-control, defence, object perception, communic ation, attachment). In order to be able to dinstinguish the extent and the quality of structural disorders four structure levels of integrat ion based on psychoanalytic experience in the out-patient and the in-p atient setting are differentiated. A basis for an operationalization i s then made; it is made in the system OPD (Operationalized Psychodynam ic Diagnostics). First studies regarding practicalibility and reliabil ity are promising.