A new diagnostic system for organic psychiatry is presented. We first
define ''organic psychiatry'', and then give the theoretical basis for
conceiving organic-psychiatric disorders in terms of hypothetical psy
chopathogenetic processes, HPP:s. Such hypothetical disorders are not
strictly identical to the clusters of symptoms in which they typically
manifest themselves, since the symptoms may be concealed or modified
by intervening factors in non-typical circumstances and/or in the simu
ltaneous presence of several disorders. The six basic disorders in our
system arc Astheno-Emotional Disorder (AED), Somnolence-Sopor-Coma Di
sorder (SSCD), Hallucination-Coenestopathy-Depersonalisation Disorder
(HCDD), Confusional Disorder (CD), Emotional-Motivational Blunting Dis
order (EMD) and Korsakoff's Amnestic Disorder (KAD). We describe their
usual etiologies, their typical symptoms and course, and some forms o
f interaction between them.