Toward a relational theory for psychiatric classification

This relational theory is composed of (a) two requirements, verifiability and applicability in laboratory, primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention settings, (b) three meta-theoretical assumptions about horizontality, verticality, and settings for intimate relationships (close, commited, inter-dependent, prolonged), (c) two assumptions about distance and ability to love (Axis II, Cluster C personality disorders), control and ability to negotaite (Cluster B), and one correlate about contents and sexual deviations, (d) four major models about: developmental identity-differentiation, styles in intimate relationships, selfhood with four propensities, (selfulness, selfishness, selflessness, no-self) that relate to Axis I syndromes and Cluster A, and priorities, (e) four models applied to distance regulation, the genesis of psychopathology, intimacy, and negotiation, and (f) an overall and a comparative model.