OPERATIONALIZED PSYCHODYNAMIC DIAGNOSTIC IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS - A CONTRIBUTION TO QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

Adopting a therapeutic view on diagnosis in child and adolescent psych iatry a psychodynamic diagnostic manual seems to be necessary, that ma y provide reliability in the assessment of intrapsychic processes. Mul tiaxial diagnosis of children's and adolescent's psychiatric disturban ces may thus be completed with additional psychodynamic assessment pro cedures. In adults an operationalized procedure of psychodynamic asses sment (OPD) already exists. In child and adolescent psychiatry a worki ng group for psychodynamic diagnostic (OPD-KJ) has been founded. In 4 areas (subjective experiences of disturbances, relationships, intrapsy chic conflicts and psychic structure) diagnostic manuals are being wor ked out. Fundamental questions of developmental psychopathology and di agnostic procedures have to be addressed. The basic proposition takes into account that children should not be psychodynamically compared wi th adults, but normally have a basic capacity to adapt to environment on a high level of psychic organisation in all developmental stages. R eports of the ongoing work are being given.