«Hierarchical» and «Modular» Models of Psychopathological Syndromes and Mental Functions

Abstract

The aim was to compare «hierarchical» and «modular» models of the mental functions and psychopathological syndromes.Material and method: a historical analysis is undertaken in the narrative review the works of thinkers of different times who put forward the concepts of mental deviations from the norm. Discussion and conclusion: hierarchical models go back to the concepts of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, modular models – to the concepts of the German doctor F. Gall. The most famous hierarchical model of «circles» of positive and negative general psychopathological syndromes in Russian psychiatry by A.V. Snezhnevsky was preceded by the hierarchical model of M.O. Gurevich – M.Ya. Sereisky, in turn, based on the model of «levels» of the psyche of the English neurologist J.H. Jackson and E. Kraepelin’s «organ registers» model. In German psychiatry also K. Jaspers cited the «onion» model in the first edition of General Psychopathology, substantiating the complication of psychopathological symptoms depending on the nosology of mental disorders. Later, the American psycholinguist and philosopher J. Fodor proposed a «modular» model of the psyche, according to which the human psyche consists of relatively independent «modules» («encapsulated») that are specific to a certain area of stimuli, are genetically determined, correlate with certain neural structures and are «computationally autonomous». The concept of modular construction of the psyche was further developed in the works of psychologists and psychiatrists of the «evolutionary» direction (models of «massive modularity», which denied the «encapsulation» of modules according to J. Fodor), based, among other premises, on the modular construction of the brain of many animal species. Diversity turns out to be inherent not only in modular models of the psyche, but also in hierarchical ones, for example, the sequence of general psychopathological positive syndromes in A.V. Snezhnevsky’s model of «circles» differs from the correlation of psychopathological syndromes in the model of «registers» by E. Kraepelin, who at the final stage of his scientific activity postulated the principles of «comparative psychiatry», in many respects similar to the principles of the subsequent direction of «evolutionary» psychiatry.