title: The need for tests of normal functioning in the psychiatric interview.
abstract: Physical medicine has a body of normal findings that make possible the definition of disease states. The routine procedures of psychiatry do not include any such tests of health. As a result, the psychiatric concept of illness has no stable base from which specific conditions can be described. The author suggests two human capacities, connectedness and self-protectiveness, that can be assessed by the psychiatrist in attempting to evaluate the patient's overall psychological health.
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007802:Language; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D008603:Mental Health; D010551:Personality; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011570:Psychiatry; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011581:Psychological Tests; D014925:Wit and Humor as Topic